CHECKERED PAST, CHEW (SOMEONE) OUT [GET CHEWED OUT], CHEW (SOMETHING) OVER: American English Idioms #39
CHECKERED PAST Checkered past is a term used to describe someones life history of having been engaged in questionable behavior. The phrase was used as early as the 1700s and 1800s as a metaphor for “marked with some kind of pattern or spot, as if checkered. Having a checkered past is a colloquial way of…