What is the origin of the phrase "rain check"?

skysmom65

This term comes from baseball, where in the 1880s it became the practice to offer paying spectators a rain check entitling them to future admission for a game that was postponed or ended early owing to bad weather. By the early 1900s the term was transferred to tickets for other kinds of entertainment, and later to a coupon entitling a customer to buy, at a later date and at the same price, a sale item temporarily out of stock. http://www.answers.com/topic/rain-check Nov 16 06, 4:15 PM

_princess_007

American baseball fans will be familiar with the term, as that is where it arose: when a game was rained out, those who had tickets for that game were given a rain check which they could redeem at another game. That might explain why efforts to prevent a baseball game from being cancelled by rain (and rain checks issued) are so prodigious: covering the playing field with tarp, keeping the fans and players waiting as long as possible to see if the downpour will end. The term was soon used metaphorically, and by the 1970s it had spread outside the U.S. and into other English-speaking countries. The use of the term as early as 1884 gives some indication as to the popularity of baseball in the U.S. even at that time: "The heavy rain yesterday threw a damper over local operations. At each of the parks the audience had to be content with three innings and rain checks" (St. Louis [Missouri] Post-Dispatch 26 May). http://www.takeourword.com/TOW143half/page2.html Nov 16 06, 7:22 PM

darkpresence

Finally, it makes sense. Over here, that's spelled "cheque" so I always thought it was check as in "check to see if it's raining". Nov 20 06, 4:59 PM