check outverb

• 1

  To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).

  • He checked his favorite mystery out for the twenty-third time.
  • The desk clerk checked out the family that had been staying in room 322.
• 2

  To record one's departure from a workplace, hotel, restaurant, etc.

  • Be sure to check out of the hotel before noon.
  • I'm done shopping, so I'll go check out now.
• 3

  To examine, inspect, look at closely, ogle; to investigate; to gather information so as to make a decision.

  • 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.
• 4

  computingengineeringmathematicsTo obtain source code (or other material) from a source control repository so that one can modify it (and often later check in the modified version).

• 5

  To become uninterested in an activity and cease to participate in more than a perfunctory manner; to become uncooperative.

  • 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.
• 6

  To become catatonic or otherwise nonresponsive.

  • 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.
• 7

  To leave in a hurry.

• 8

  To die.

  • Steve: (referring to his girlfriend attempting suicide in front of both of them) Look, I was just an observer. Bishop: You haven't answered my question. Steve: Well, what do you think? Bishop: We'll never know, will we? Steve: Well, say I just sat there—or we just sat there—and watched her check out. Think that would have been crazy?
  • With a bottle full of sleeping pills and a long list of sins She'd already planned on checking out before she checked in