Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
⏳ Promise for later 🔜 To postpone 🎟️ A replacement ticket
to rain check

to rain check

3 4.5
To say you will do something later instead of now
  • idiom
  • /reɪn tʃɛk/
  • Informal
translation icon : dejar para otra ocasión
  • I'd love to join the hike, but I have other plans; can I take a rain check?
  • take a rain check

Examples

Synonyms

to take a rain check
vsto rain check
19 6.6

Politely say no now but suggest doing it another time

is an informal way to postpone or decline while showing intent to reschedule

Surface Forms

rain check infinitive
rain checked past
rain checked past participle
rain checking present participle

Morphology

rain + check

The meaning 'to postpone or decline now while indicating intention to accept or reschedule later' cannot be directly inferred from 'rain' (precipitation) + 'check' (a control or inspection). The expression is a conventionalized idiom originating from tickets/vouchers issued for rained-out events, so its specialized, historical sense is unlikely to be predictable to a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words.

Etymology

Rain check as a verb comes from that same paper ticket idea: people would ask for a paper rain check when an event was rained out. To 'rain check' something now means 'to delay it and plan to do it later'.