What does "to take a rain check" mean? and where did it come from?

Question

What does "to take a rain check" mean? and where did it come from?

Answer 1

When a baseball game was rained out, those who had tickets for that game were given a rain check which they could redeem at another game.

Answer 2

It means you are going to opt out. When you go to the grocery store and they are out of a specific item that you know to be on sale, you can take the rain check and when they get the item back in stock, the sale will still apply to the item.

Answer 3

" Taking a rain check," means that your plans had fell through

and whatever you had planned for a particular day has to be

rescheduled.  I think it might have something to do with having

a sports event cancelled due to rain.

Answer 4

it means to save it for another day. it comes from the saying of saving your money for a rainy day.. when there's nothing to do you can go back and spend your "rainy day" money. but in most cases to take a rain check is to get the product another day when its available.

Answer 5

something that you say when you cannot accept someone's invitation to do something but you would like to do it another time. I'll take a rain check on that drink tonight, if that's all right. (often + on) I won't play tennis this afternoon but can I get a rain check?

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 canceled 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).