0

Is the adjective "checkmated" used?

Although it does not appear in the Cambridge dictionary or Merriam-Webster, if...

  • Person-A checkmates Person-B

  • Consequently: Person-B is checkmated!

Is 'checkmated' correctly used?

Greybeard
  • 41,737
tremendows
  • 113
  • 1
  • 1
  • 5
  • 1
    You can always construct a term that is non-standard, for its effect. The shock value is creative if you don't overdo it. – Yosef Baskin Oct 13 '21 at 13:24
  • 2
    Past participles of transitive verbs can generally be used as adjectives in English. So checkmated is perfectly standard English (this isn't true for intransitive verbs, like laughed). – Peter Shor Oct 13 '21 at 13:26
  • 3
    It's OK to use past-tense verbs as modifiers. You can have checkmated players, tired players, defeated players, honored players, overturned boards, lost pieces, abandoned games, and celebrated victories. :) – Maverick Oct 13 '21 at 13:52
  • 1
    ... and according to Dictionary.com, zugzwanged opponents. One can even find say 'Misha getting en passanted by Anatoly Karpov' on the internet. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 13 '21 at 16:33
  • @PeterShor And it could be used (creatively) as a straight adjective. "After an hour spent in his boss's office trying to persuade her of the merits of his proposal, he left with a checkmated expression on his face." – Tuffy Oct 13 '21 at 18:36
  • 2
    It can be an adjective, as in "He remained checkmated", but it's a verb in, for example "Kasparov checkmated Elmar in three moves". Your example "Person B is checkmated" is ambiguous: if it describes an event ("B is checkmated by A") it's a verb is a passive clause, but if it describes B's state arising from prior checkmating, it's an adjective. – BillJ Oct 14 '21 at 07:59
  • @BillJ Isn't it a participial adjective? thesaurus.com/e/grammar/participial-adjectives – tremendows Oct 14 '21 at 10:20
  • 2
    Yes, you can call it a participial adjective if you like. Grammarians often just consider the participial bit as understood, and simply call it an adjective since its word class (part of speech) is adjective not verb, of course. – BillJ Oct 14 '21 at 10:45
  • In 'John was checkmated by Jill' it's very verby. In 'The checkmated villain went quietly' it's an adjective. In 'John was checkmated' you need more context to differentiate between the punctive passive ('... at 7:45 precisely') and the stative ( ... and he'd been stymied for the last month at least'). – Edwin Ashworth Nov 15 '21 at 16:45

1 Answers1

0

Person-A checkmates Person-B. Consequently: Person-B is checkmated! Is 'checkmated' correctly used?

Yes, but it is not an adjective it is the passive past participle of "to checkmate."

OED:

  1. Chess (transitive). To give checkmate to: see checkmate n. 1. (Now, commonly, to mate; see mate v.2)

1856 R. Whately Bacon's Ess. (ed. 2) xxii. Annot. 215 He is like a chess-player who takes several pawns, but is checkmated.

Greybeard
  • 41,737
  • not an adjective? what about participial adjective? thesaurus.com/e/grammar/participial-adjectives – tremendows Oct 15 '21 at 13:01
  • @tremendows Your own example clearly uses "checkmated" as a passive past participle. Person-A checkmates Person-B. Consequently: Person-B is checkmated! [by A]** The first sentence is the active use, the second is the passive. – Greybeard Oct 15 '21 at 16:37
  • In this case, Isn't (in this case) a past participle an adjective? – tremendows Nov 16 '21 at 10:37