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According to my research, it seems "a check-up" is often refereed to a complete **whole-body **check-up (ears, eyes, lungs, blood test etc).

I am not sure if "a check-up" can be used for some part of our body (like legs, ear, eyes etc) separately.

I googled "gave my leg a check-up" but I don't see many results or too few results.

So I think native people don't often say that way. They probably say something else.

Can "a check-up" be used for some part of our body (like legs, ear, eyes etc) separately?

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  • It most certainly cannot be used like that except informally in chats.
    – Lambie
    Commented Oct 4, 2023 at 14:57

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A check-up most commonly refers to a routine general examination that isn't particularly focused in one area. That said, some sensitive/delicate parts of the body are routinely checked, so it would be possible to have a dental check-up, or an eye or ear check-up. It would be odd to have a check-up on a part of the body that does not usually see routine evaluation by a doctor, like the leg or elbow - if the doctor is examining your leg, it's usually because you're complaining about a specific problem, which does not fit well with the connotation that a check-up is usually a routine and exploratory procedure that's not intended to address a specific issue. A check-up implies that nothing specific is wrong, but checking one specific part of the body implies a specific issue.

If you hurt your leg and are seen by a doctor, it would be more common to say "the doctor examined my leg" than to say "the doctor gave my leg a check-up".

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  • Yes, "examined" is the word
    – gotube ♦
    Commented Jul 26, 2022 at 17:55
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You could use checkup, in the sense that people would probably understand what you meant, but you're correct that it's not common.

As you've found, checkup is more often used for a general examination:

  1. medicine
    a medical examination, esp one taken at regular intervals to verify a normal state of health or discover a disease in its early stages

Collins English Dictionary

The correct phrase would depend on the level of formality of the conversation and the intensity of the examination. For example, if I wanted to de-emphasize the seriousness, I could say:

I asked the doctor to check out my leg

A similar tone, though somewhat more serious:

I asked the doctor to look at my leg

If you wanted to be formal, or stress the seriousness:

I asked the doctor to examine my leg

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