rain check
or raincheck
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noun
a ticket for future use given to spectators at an outdoor event, as a baseball game or concert, that has been postponed or interrupted by rain.
an offered or requested postponement of an invitation until a more convenient, usually unspecified time: Since you can't join us for dinner, we'll give you a rain check.
a ticket, coupon, or the like, entitling a customer to purchase at a later date and for the same amount a sale item that is temporarily out of stock.
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Origin of rain check
First recorded in 1880–85
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
British Dictionary definitions for rain check
rain check
noun
US and Canadian a ticket stub for a baseball or other game that allows readmission on a future date if the event is cancelled because of rain
the deferral of acceptance of an offer, esp a voucher issued to a customer wishing to purchase a sale item that is temporarily out of stock, enabling him or her to buy it at the special price when next the item is available
take a rain check informal to accept the postponement of an offer
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with rain check
rain check
A promise that an unaccepted offer will be renewed in the future, as in I can't come to dinner Tuesday but hope you'll give me a rain check. This term comes from baseball, where in the 1880s it became the practice to offer paying spectators a rain check entitling them to future admission for a game that was postponed or ended early owing to bad weather. By the early 1900s the term was transferred to tickets for other kinds of entertainment, and later to a coupon entitling a customer to buy, at a later date and at the same price, a sale item temporarily out of stock.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.