# What does ‘take a rain check’ mean?

To “take a rain check” means to politely decline now but accept later. A 19th-century American idiom from baseball, where a rain-check ticket admitted a spectator to a rescheduled game after a rain-out. Not in Brewer's 1898.

## What it means

- A 19th-century American idiom from baseball, where a rain-check ticket admitted a spectator to a rescheduled game after a rain-out. Not in Brewer's 1898.

## Action steps

1. Very common in social invitations.
2. Example: I can't tonight, but let me take a rain check.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Internet Archive scan](https://archive.org/details/brewers-dictionary-of-phrase-and-fable)

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