One way to hold it: you paid, you turned up, and then the rain took the thing away before you got it. Someone hands you a small piece of card. The card says the deal is not gone — it is waiting for you on another day. Every use of this phrase is that card, moved to a new place: to a shop shelf that ran empty, or to a Friday night when you simply cannot come.

可以想成:你付了錢、人也到了,結果一場雨把整件事帶走了。有人遞給你一張小卡片。卡片的意思是:這筆交易沒有作廢,它在另一天等你。這個說法的每一種用法,都是這張卡片被搬到別的地方——搬到賣空的貨架上,或是搬到一個你怎麼樣都到不了的星期五晚上。

From the word’s history

Wiktionary dates it to US baseball in 1877: from at least 1870 clubs reissued tickets when a game was rained off, and those reissued tickets were called rain checks; the figurative use follows from 1896.

Wiktionary 把它追到一八七七年的美國棒球:至少從一八七零年代起,比賽因雨延期時球團會補發球票,那種票就叫 rain check;比喻用法從一八九六年開始出現。

Wiktionary, "rain check"

Two branches

那張留到下次的票券

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ticket for a rained-off event · noun

A ticket given to people at a baseball game or another outdoor event that is stopped or called off by rain, letting them come to a later one without paying again.

雨天補發票

把邀約留到下一次

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take a rain check (on something) · noun

Used to say no to an invitation now while asking to accept it another time, so the offer stays open instead of ending.

改天再約