rain check

or raincheck

See synonyms for rain check on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  1. 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.

Origin of rain check

1
First recorded in 1880–85

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

British Dictionary definitions for rain check

rain check

noun
  1. 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

  2. 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

  1. 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.