blank check

• blank cheque (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, UK)

blank check (plural blank checks)

1. (US) A signed check of the type used to draw money from a bank account containing no information as to the amount to be paid with it.
2. (US) A grant of complete authority to spend an unlimited amount of money, or to take other actions without restraint.
   • 1992, Leon T. Hadar, Quagmire: America in the Middle East, page 55:

     Nixon and Kissinger had established a blank check policy, giving the Shah a free hand to buy as many American weapons systems as he wanted, even the most technologically advanced, so long as they were not nuclear.

• carte blanche