blank check
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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.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
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.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.