English

Verb

check out ‎(third-person singular simple present checks out, present participle checking out, simple past and past participle checked out)

1. (intransitive) To confirm and pay for goods and services at a facility (e.g.: supermarket, online store, hotel) when leaving.

   Be sure to check out of the hotel before noon.

   I'm done shopping, so I'll go check out now.

2. (transitive) To withdraw (an item), as from a library, and have the withdrawal recorded.

   He checked his favorite mystery out for the twenty-third time.

3. (transitive) To record (someone) as leaving the premises or as taking something therefrom, as from a library or shop.

   The desk clerk checked out the family that had been staying in room 322.

   The library assistant was checking people out.

4. (transitive) To examine, inspect, look at closely, ogle; to investigate.

   He was hanging out at the beach, checking out the young women in bikinis.

   He checked out the rumor, and managed to verify that it was true.

   Check it out! Best prices in town.

   Check this out! They just arrested the Mayor!

   When you're there, check out the Cheddar Cheese Museum! It's a hoot!

   Check us out on the Web at http://en.wiktionary.org!

5. (transitive) (computer science): To obtain source code from a repository.
6. (intransitive) To become disinterested in an activity and cease to participate in more than a perfunctory manner; to become uncooperative.
   • 2010, S. Greggory Johnson III, The Black Professoriat: Negotiating a Habitable Space in the Academy, p. 189:

     The purpose of this exercise was to ignite reactions from students, but over the few years I used it, it backfired, culminating in a situation where I lost a significant number of the white students, who just "checked out" for the rest of the semester.

7. (intransitive) To become catatonic or otherwise nonresponsive.
   • 2007 Susan Nathiel, Daughters of Madness: Growing Up and Older With a Mentally Ill Mother, p. 42:

     Even during those years, there would be a lot of times she just checked out. She would be sitting there looking at her nails and she'd just be gone.

8. (intransitive) To leave in a hurry.
9. (intransitive, euphemistic, by extension) To die.
10. (intransitive) To prove (after an investigation) to be the case / in order.

    The first two leads check out; I'll assume the third one is also valid.

    Their stories checked out.

Antonyms

• (most senses): check in

Translations

Related terms

• checkout