blank check

Related to blank check: Blank check company

a blank check

1. Literally, a check presented to someone with the amount left blank, so that it can be written out for the desired total. Mom, can you give me a blank check so I can fill it out when I buy my school supplies?
2. By extension, the freedom or permission to spend as much money or use as much resources as needed in pursuit of a desire or goal. The company was having a difficult time retaining good employees so the manager was given a blank check to increase salaries and restructure his department. After the fifth murder, the city's police officers were given a blank check to use whatever resources they needed in order to find the serial killer before he struck again.
See also: blank, check
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

blank check

freedom or permission to act as one wishes or thinks necessary. He's been given a blank check with regard to reorganizing the workforce. The new manager has been given no detailed instructions about how to train the staff. He just has a blank check.
See also: blank, check
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

blank check

Unrestricted authority, a free hand, as in I'll support most of the chairman's agenda, but I'm not ready to give him a blank check for the company's future . Literally this term signifies a bank check that is signed by the drawer but does not indicate the amount of money, which is filled in by the person to whom it is given. [Late 1800s]
See also: blank, check
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
See also:
  • a blank check
  • a blank cheque
  • cheque
  • give a blank check to (one)
  • give (one) a blank check
  • give a blank check
  • fill in the blank
  • fill in the blank(s)
  • Fill in the blanks
  • blank
References in periodicals archive
According to the agency, Sheldon Rose created more than a dozen blank check companies that have no operations and no value other than their registered status to sell stock.
Blank check companies--a risky investment vehicle born in the 1980s--are making a comeback as of late, according to Business Week.
But some Measure 50 supporters and TV viewers contend that Reynolds American should be listed as the sole sponsor since the tobacco company is, to date, the sole contributor to Oregonians Against the Blank Check. Reynolds American has contributed about $1.8 million.
VersaCheck blank check stock can be purchased in many CompUSA and Office Depot stores.
Writing for the majority, Sandra Day O'Connor asserted, "A state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to the rights of the Nation's citizens."
It isn't as easy as returning a blank check to the rightful owner.
In last Spring's highly charged enemy detainee cases, it refused to write the executive branch a blank check for wartime detention powers.
"This bill would simply give body shops a blank check to repair cars with whatever parts they want, no matter the price," said Gerald Zimmerman, NAII senior counsel, who testified at the hearing.
The process works like this: A customer first signs a blank check and hands it to the cashier.
Opponents have criticized the tax as an unfair penalty for success, a blank check for spendthrift politicians, and a bloodsucking leech feeding on wage earners and businesses.
Politicians have given the president a military blank check. The church, however, can never write a moral blank check.
report, I'm not willing to give the nursing home industry a blank check," said Grassley.
According to The Washingtonian magazine, a blank check with stock options and a signing bonus drew the 60-year-old Causey to PlanetGov.com despite counteroffers from the Post, which he joined as a messenger in 1957.
The federal government, working through the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), should be encouraged to make sure that new or amended regulations permit the design flexibility needed and desired to accommodate a variety of resident preferences, without providing the provider community a blank check that cannot be controlled.
[4] While waiving a copayment may represent the highest ideals of medical altruism in selected cases, it can also represent a marketing ploy or a source of unjust enrichment for unscrupulous and greedy physicians who use health insurance as a "blank check" to secure payment for excessive and unnecessary services.