bad check
13
3.5
- noun
- /bæd tʃɛk/
- Specialized
:
cheque sin fondos
- We picked him up at a motel in Cedar for writing bad checks.
- write a bad check
But I would pay for it with bad checks.
- But I would pay for it with bad checks.
- He did stuff like steal cars, write bad checks, became an unsuccessful pimp and drug dealer.
- I presented the check, it cleared, and then the judge who's trying it, not a jury, saying I find that this woman got a bad check.
Examples
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His business partner gave him a bad check.
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But one year, he went to prison after writing a bad check for some food.
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That makes two bad checks I have to write!
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A bunch of employees wrote bad checks that Friday, and others found their debit card was not working.
Blog text (20) -
One of his last jobs was collecting bad checks for Vegas.
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In July 2010, Mr. Binsack pleaded no contest to seven bad check charges.
Blog text (19) -
"I once did eight months in Sandstone, Minnesota, for writing bad checks.
Fiction book (1999) -
They stole a car in Iowa and bought tires with a bad check.
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I had to go in and change my accounts after they bounced $10,000 in bad checks in my name.
Blog text (26) -
His business partner gave him a bad check that bounced due to insufficient funds.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The adjective 'bad' conveys that something is wrong with the 'check', so a B1 learner who knows both words will likely infer it refers to a problematic or invalid payment. However, the specific legal/banking sense (a check dishonored because of insufficient funds) is a specialized, somewhat conventionalized meaning not fully predictable from the constituents alone.
Etymology
Bad check comes from the simple picture of a check that is bad because the bank will not pay it when the account has no money. So, a bad check means 'a check that cannot be paid'.