checkout line
7
1.4
- noun
- /ˈtʃɛkaʊt laɪn/
- US
:
cola de pago
- During the busy holiday season, checkout lines can stretch all the way to the back of the store.
- a checkout line at the store
What I've had it with is the inefficiency of people in the self checkout line.
- What I've had it with is the inefficiency of people in the self checkout line.
- I was at the checkout line in Costco and the woman checking me out goes, oh, I heard you died.
- Then you go to the checkout line and it's I roll goddamn city.
- Then you go to the checkout line and it's I roll God damn city.
Examples
-
Finally, we made our way to the checkout line only a couple of minutes before the baby's feeding time.
Blog text (3) -
She noticed a friend in front of her while standing in the checkout line with a cart full of groceries.
-
I will also miss shopping at a store that always had short checkout lines.
Blog text (16) -
I am in the grocery store, standing in the checkout line.
Academic text (2011) -
The man next to me in a grocery store checkout line asked.
Blog text (21) -
I spotted this magazine yesterday at the checkout line in Home Depot.
Blog text (5) -
At two in the afternoon, she saw Burt Mink in her checkout line, two carts back.
Fiction book (1994) -
Elaine could not believe her good luck when she first met Harlen in the campus bookstore checkout line.
Fiction book (2000) -
The shoppers of 2010 will be able to pass through store checkout lines without needing to pause for any grumpy cashier demanding a price check.
Academic text (2004) -
I waited in the long checkout line at the grocery store for almost half an hour.
Synonyms
1
1.8
A line of people or cars waiting for their turn
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'checkout' (payment area/register) and 'line' (a queue) in a directly compositional way so the meaning 'a queue at the payment area' is immediately derivable. This is a common, cross-linguistic noun + noun/compound pattern and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.
Etymology
Checkout line comes from the everyday scene in shops where people stand in a line to reach the checkout, the counter where a cashier checks your items and you 'pay'. So, the phrase means 'a line of people waiting to pay'.