blank check
9
4.6
- noun
- /blæŋk tʃɛk/
- US
:
carta blanca
- The committee was given a blank check to fund the new project without limits.
But I don't think we need, I don't think we needed kind of blank check authoritarian measures.
- But I don't think we need, I don't think we needed kind of blank check authoritarian measures.
- OK, you don't give up details, but you know, you now just created a blank check.
- It's kind of a blank check, and if everybody adopts this position, it is extremely dangerous.
Examples
-
He gave them a blank check without question.
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I'm gonna write you a blank check, and you just get your car fixed...
-
You have a blank check.
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Let me have a blank check, will you?
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I'll sit down and I'll write you out a blank check.
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I give you a bunch of blank checks or a debit card or both.
-
With the Democrats holding majorities in the House and Senate, President Obama had a blank check and a rare political opportunity.
Blog text (32) -
What Measure J does is give MTA a blank check for the future, when the jury is still out on construction quality and timeliness.
Blog text (27) -
An affinity for Taiwan does not mean that Japan will extend a blank check to Taiwan.
Academic text (2004) -
Here's a blank check.
Synonyms
15
4.1
Freedom to act and make choices without someone controlling you
11
8.1
Freedom to act without asking permission
5
4.1
The freedom to act or decide without being told what to do
Antonyms
How Free
Surface Forms
Morphology
Although the literal words 'blank' (empty) and 'check' (bank order) can suggest a signed but unfilled cheque and therefore the general idiom of giving someone unrestricted authority, the supplied definition refers to a specialised financial instrument (a SPAC). That technical meaning is not transparently derivable from the constituents by a B1 learner who knows the words, so the MWE functions as an opaque, domain-specific term in this sense.
Etymology
Blank check as an idiom comes from giving someone a signed check with the amount left blank, so they can spend or decide whatever they want. That's why it means 'complete freedom to act or spend'.