Word.ws English Dictionary

raincheck

raincheck is the alternative form of rain check.

Meaning of rain check

Noun

rain check (plural rain checks)

  1. 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
  2. (figuratively) 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
  3. (figuratively, uncommon) 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
  4. (broadly, figuratively) 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?

Verb

raincheck (third-person singular simple present rainchecks, present participle rainchecking, simple past and past participle rainchecked)

  1. (intransitive, transitive) To take a rain check on; to postpone.
    • Jana planted her hands on her hips, rainchecked the promise of allegiance, and continued the challenging stare.2018, Lindy Cameron, Redback
    • Golden Gate Park—check. Line too long for cable car so rainchecking that.2019, Anne Marsh, Her Intern: A Hot Billionaire Workplace Romance

Forms of raincheck

Noun
pluralrainchecks
Verb
third-person singular presentrainchecks
present participlerainchecking
past participlerainchecked
pastrainchecked

Phrases with raincheck

Questions about raincheck

What does raincheck mean?
Raincheck means to take a rain check on; to postpone.
What is raincheck the alternative form of?
Raincheck is the alternative form of rain check.
What part of speech is raincheck?
Raincheck is a verb.
What is the past tense of raincheck?
The past tense of raincheck is rainchecked.

Words near raincheck in the dictionary

  1. rainburn
  2. rainburst
  3. rainbursts
  4. raincape
  5. raincapes
  6. raincheck
  7. rainchecked
  8. rainchecking
  9. rainchecks
  10. raincheque
  11. raincheques

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: raincheck (page history and authors); 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.

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Cite this entry: “raincheck.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/raincheck. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.