checkered

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   patterned with alternating squares or irregular patches of different colors

   A checkered cloth covered the kitchen table.

2. 2
   adj

   marked by many changes of fortune, especially a mixture of successes, failures, and difficulties

   The company survived a checkered history of bold ideas and costly mistakes.

From checker, in the sense of a square in a checkerboard, plus -ed. The figurative sense compares a life or history containing alternating good and bad periods to a pattern of contrasting squares.

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