rain check
rain check noun: a reissue, at no extra charge, of a ticket for a baseball game or other outdoor event postponed or interrupted because of rain.
Noun
rain check (plural rain checks)
- A reissue, at no extra charge, of a ticket for a baseball game or other outdoor event postponed or interrupted because of rain.
- With trembling fingers he pulled out his watch. The hands pointed to five minutes to three. A blessed vision came to him of a moist and disappointed crowd receiving rain-checks up at the Polo Grounds.1920 March – 1921 February, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “Summer Storms”, in Indiscretions of Archie, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, […], published 1921, →OCLC, page 167
- Feel so bad / Feel like a ball game on a rainy day / Yes, I got my rain check / Shake my head and walk away1954, Chuck Willis, “I Feel So Bad”
- A (special) price guarantee for a sold-out item or temporarily unavailable service.
- This means that if you go to the store for a half priced $25 turkey, but the turkeys are out, you can get a rain check. With the rain check, when those turkeys arrive again in a week or so, you will get half price, even if the sale is over.2010, Kristin Peoples, Don't Throw Those Coupons Away!, →ISBN, pages 17–18
- So if you go to CVS to cash in on the Venus Razor BOGO deal and you discover that other shoppers have beat you to it and the shelves are empty, instead of pitching a fit, you can kindly ask a cashier or store manager to give you a rain check. That way, you can return at your leisure and still get...2010, Kathy Spencer, Samantha Rose, How to Shop for Free, Da Capo Lifelong, →ISBN, page 52
- The promise to make good on any experience that the customer deems unsatisfactory.
- [Regarding visiting the Indianapolis, Indiana, chapter of the fraternity Kappa Sigma] […] if in any respect the affair does not suit you—call at the box office and you’ll get your money back or get a rain check, just as you please.1896 January, Caduceus of Kappa Sigma, volume 11, number 1, Philadelphia, page 305
- In social interactions, a deferred invitation, or deferred acceptance of an invitation.
- I can't go with you to the museum this Saturday, but can I take a rain check and go some other day?
- I'm on my way somewhere. I got a dinner engagement. Rain check?1994, Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Pulp Fiction, spoken by Vincent Vega (John Travolta)
Forms of rain check
| plural | rain checks |
|---|---|
| alternative form | raincheck |
| alternative form | rain-check |
| alternative form | raincheque |
| alternative form | rain cheque |
| alternative form | rain-cheque |
Origin of rain check
1877 US in baseball; metaphorical usage from 1896, more generally from 1930. From at least 1870, baseball teams would reissue tickets in case of postponement due to rain, which became known as rain checks.
Words formed from rain check
Questions about rain check
- What does rain check mean?
- Rain check means a reissue, at no extra charge, of a ticket for a baseball game or other outdoor event postponed or interrupted because of rain.
- What part of speech is rain check?
- Rain check is a noun.
- What is the plural of rain check?
- The plural of rain check is rain checks.
Words near rain check in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: rain check (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-rain check.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-rain check.wav.
Cite this entry: “rain check.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rain_check. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.