Skip to main content
PlainSpell

rain check

noun

rain check is a noun meaning “A reissue, at no extra charge, of a ticket for a baseball game or other outdoor event postponed or interrupted because of rain” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-A-I-N-C-H-E-C-K. The plural of rain check is rain checks or rain-checks.

What does rain check mean?

noun

  1. 1

    A reissue, at no extra charge, of a ticket for a baseball game or other outdoor event postponed or interrupted because of rain.

  2. 2

    A (special) price guarantee for a sold-out item or temporarily unavailable service.

  3. 3

    The promise to make good on any experience that the customer deems unsatisfactory.

  4. 4

    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?

noun

as rain-check
  1. 1

    Alternative form of rain check.

verb

as rain-check
  1. 1

    Alternative form of raincheck.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce rain check?

  • Australia
  • General-American

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-rain_check.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-rain_check.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of rain check

  • rain checks plural
  • raincheck
  • rain-check
  • raincheque
  • rain cheque
  • rain-cheque
  • rain-checks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • rain-checking participle, present
  • rain-checked participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Words people confuse with rain check

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

rain check vs rain-cheque0 B

Also written: rain-cheque.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Rain check in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

In the sense an extension or postponement of an offer:

LanguageWords
GermanGutschein, Gutschrift, Verschieben auf später
Spanishcheque pluvial, vale

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does rain check come from?

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.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).