char
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Etymology 1
Back-formation from charcoal.
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
Verb
char (third-person singular simple present chars, present participle charring, simple past and past participle charred)
- (ergative) To burn something to charcoal; to be burnt to charcoal.
- I charred the wood.
- The wood charred.
- (transitive) To burn (something) severely, so as to blacken it.
- The fire charred her down to the bone.
- (transitive) To burn (something) slightly or superficially so as to affect colour.
- The chef charred the scallops just right.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
to burn something to charcoal
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to burn slightly
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Noun
- A charred substance.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
Etymology 2
Unknown, perhaps from Celtic, such as Irish ceara (“fiery red”) (found in personal names). Or, perhaps borrowed from Middle Low German schar (“flounder, dab”), from Proto-Germanic *skardaz, related to *skeraną (“to cut”), referring to its shape. If so, related to shard.[1]
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
Noun
- Any of the several species of fishes of the genus Salvelinus.
- Among other native delicacies, they give you fresh char.
Derived terms
Translations
fish
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Etymology 3
From Middle English cherre (“odd job”), from Old English ċierr (“a turn, change, time, occasion, affair, business”), from ċierran (“to turn, change, turn oneself, go, come, proceed, turn back, return, regard, translate, persuade, convert, be converted, agree to, submit, make to submit, reduce”), from Proto-Germanic *karzijaną (“to turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *gers- (“to bend, turn”).
Cognate with Dutch keer (“a time, turn, occasion”), German Kehre (“a turn, bight, bend”) and kehren (“to sweep”) or umkehren (“to return or reverse”), Greek γύρος (gýros, “a bout, whirl”), gyre. More at chore, ajar.
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
Noun
char (plural chars)
- (obsolete) A time; a turn or occasion.
- (obsolete) A turn of work; a labour or item of business.
- An odd job, a chore or piece of housework.
- c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
- When thou hast done this chare, I’ll give thee leave to play till doomsday.
- A charlady, a woman employed to do housework; cleaning lady.
- I had to scrub the kitchen today, because the char couldn't come.
- 1919, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Pictures”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 163:
- But there was nobody at Kig and Kadgit's except the charwoman wiping over the “lino” in the passage. “Nobody here yet, Miss,” said the char.
- 1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 77:
- The rollers wore grooves in the nursery floors and the chars complained of getting splinters in their hands while scrubbing.
Synonyms
Related terms
Translations
cleaning woman
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Verb
char (third-person singular simple present chars, present participle charing or charring, simple past and past participle chared or charred)
- (obsolete) To turn, especially away or aside.
- To work, especially to do housework; to work by the day, without being a regularly hired servant.
- 1893, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Naval Treaty, Norton, published 2005, page 677:
- She explained that she was the commissionaire's wife, who did the charing, and I gave her the order for the coffee.
- 1897, W. Somerset Maugham, Lisa of Lambeth, chapter 2
- (obsolete) To perform; to do; to finish.
- 1613–1614, William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, “The Two Noble Kinsmen”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act III, scene ii:
- All's chared when he is gone.
- To work or hew (stone, etc.)[2]
Etymology 4
Abbreviation of character, used as the name of a data type in some programming languages, including notably C.
Pronunciation
Noun
char (plural chars)
- (computing, programming) A character (text element such as a letter or symbol).
- 1975 April 23, Computerworld, page 21:
- The unit is an 80-column, 30 char. /sec dot matrix printer which uses a 5 by 7 font.
- 1997, Cay S Horstmann, Gary Cornell, Core Java 1.1: Fundamentals:
- Chars can be considered as integers if need be without an explicit cast.
- 1998, John R Hubbard, Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of Fundamentals of Computing with C++:
- Then since each char occupies one byte, these four bytes represent the three letters 'B', 'y', 'e', and the null character NUL.
- 2004, Kari Laitinen, A Natural Introduction to Computer Programming with C#:
- When a 32-bit int value is stored to a 16-bit char variable, information can be lost if the 16 most significant bits are not zeroes in the int value.
- 2000, Ken Brownsey, The essence of data structures using C++:
- Thus string variables are pointer variables to chars.
- 2002, Nell B. Dale, Michael McMillan, Visual Basic .NET: a laboratory course - Page 25
- .NET uses the Unicode character set in which each char constant or variable takes up two bytes (16 bits) of storage.
- A character (being involved in the action of a story).
- 2006, Yzabel, quotee, “The Y Logs”, in Deborah Woehr, editor, 2006 Writer’s Blog Anthology: A Collection of Works by Writers Who Blog, [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 93:
- In fact, when I somewhat lack inspiration, I tend to convert my characters according to the rules of a game which universe is close enough (I did it for some of the chars in my WIP, taking the Cyberpunk 2020 rulebook).
- 2008 September, Soulhacker, quotee, “Ongoing MMO Wars”, in GameAxis Unwired, number 60, Singapore: SPH Magazines Pte Ltd, →ISSN, page 11:
- WoW exp I feel that it is just a progress from Lv70 to 80 and then back to square one to raid\arena or die expansion. So I don’t see the point of going back just to level my char to 80 and let them idle at end-game.
- 2020, Svitlana Klötzl, Birgit Swoboda, Interpersonal Positioning in English as a Lingua Franca Interactions, New York, N.Y., Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, →ISBN:
- The class (an adventuring style (e.g. mage, warrior, hunter, etc.) of the character, which determines abilities, weapons, etc.) choice often also influences the gaming and language of a character during role-playing. As one of the participants states: / Character bound politeness is part of some of my chars – as well as impoliteness is. An example: A Paladin or Priest has to be polite in RPG according to his profession to the light, a Warlock is the opposite as well as rogues etc.
Coordinate terms
Derived terms
- charizing
- signed char
- unsigned char
Related terms
Translations
Etymology 5
Non-rhotic spelling of cha.
Noun
char (uncountable)
See also
References
Anagrams
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