Emily Dickinson Lexicon

EX-CHEQ'UER, n. [exchek'er; Fr. echiquier, checker-work, a chess-board. See Chess and Checker.]

In England, an ancient court of record, intended principally to collect and superintend the king's debts and duties or revenues, and so called from scaccharium, or from the same root, denoting a checkered cloth, which covers the table. It consists of two divisions; the receipt of the exchequer, which manages the royal revenue; and the judicial part, which is divided into a court of law and a court of equity. The court of equity is held in the exchequer chamber, before the lord treasurer, the chancellor of the exchequer, the chief baron and three inferior barons. The common law court is held before the barons, without the treasurer or chancellor. Blackstone. Exchequer-bills, in England, bills for money, or promissory bills, issued from the exchequer; a species of paper currency emitted under the authority of the Government and bearing interest.