Rain check/cheque

[thescarftwins]

Please help settle a disagreement.

Rain check/cheque - originated in America if a baseball game was rained off. You were issued a ticket for the next game. Hence a rain check.

However. In England we say Cheque.

Would we, in England, say rain cheque or rain check?

Thank you! (Here's hoping I win)

It's such an American term that it seems a bit silly to apply British spelling rules to it. I've never heard it used by someone here, only by Americans.

Check

I would use check:

1. SINGULAR NOUN

If you say you will take a rain check on an offer or suggestion, you mean that you do not want to accept it now, but you might accept it at another time. I was planning to ask you in for a brandy, but if you want to take a rain check, that's fine. Can I take a rain check on that?

1. COUNTABLE NOUN

A rain check is a free ticket that is given to people when an outdoor game or event is stopped because of rain or bad weather, so that they can go to it when it is held again. [US]

Check

Check - it's a US expression so doesn't make sense otherwise. I've only ever seen it written this way too.

Rain check W hen in N America, rain cheque here.

As in checking/chequing account at a bank, writing a check/cheque to pay for a school trip etc.

It’s a token given someone to redeem the next time.

Agree, doesn't make sense to use the British spelling for an American term

I’ve never heard of it using the U.K. cheque spelling.

As far as I know, a rain check was originally a check (=token) given to people who had paid to go to an outdoors sporting event (a baseball game, say) which had then been rained off. Rather than give you your money back, with all the complications of that, you were given a chit or check to say "this person has paid to see one game at this venue" when you turned up to see whatever it was that had been delayed by the weather.

Then it started to be used for individual things: "I can't make it tonight: can I have a rain check?" meaning "I want to see you but this evening my aunt from Philly wants me over to supper and I can't skip that".