Word.ws English Dictionary

hand in one's checks

hand in one's checks verb: to die.

Verb

hand in one's checks (third-person singular simple present hands in one's checks, present participle handing in one's checks, simple past and past participle handed in one's checks)

  1. (US, colloquial) To die.
    • When my ole woman was sick last winter and mighty near handing in her checks, I had no money to pay anybody to take care of her.1905, Will Wilfrid Whalen, Bridget, Or, What's in a Name?, Mayhew Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 2
  2. (US, colloquial) To give up; to concede defeat.
    • 'I give up,' he cried; 'I hand in my checks. I never thought I should come to such things; but what happens when the things come to you? […]'1926, G. K. Chesterton, The Incredulity of Father Brown
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see hand in, one's, checks.
    • As between the plaintiffs and the Harrisons the transaction was precisely the same as if the plaintiffs, standing at the counter of Harrisons' Bank, handed in their checks, took the money over the counter, and then handed it right back again to pay for the drafts.1887, “Charles Mayer et al. vs. Philip Heidelbach et al., Appellants' Brief”, in New York Superior Court General Term, volume 10, page 5

Synonyms of hand in one's checks

Forms of hand in one's checks

third-person singular presenthands in one's checks
present participlehanding in one's checks
past participlehanded in one's checks
pasthanded in one's checks

Questions about hand in one's checks

What does hand in one's checks mean?
Hand in one's checks means to die.
What part of speech is hand in one's checks?
Hand in one's checks is a verb.
What is the past tense of hand in one's checks?
The past tense of hand in one's checks is handed in one's checks.

Words near hand in one's checks in the dictionary

  1. hand hoeing
  2. hand hoes
  3. hand in
  4. hand in glove
  5. hand in hand
  6. hand in one's checks
  7. hand in one's dinner pail
  8. hand in the cookie jar
  9. hand it out
  10. hand it to
  11. hand it to someone

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hand in one's checks (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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