receipt hostage

When eating out: the purgatorial time between receiving the check and receiving your receipt. In this space, you are trapped, having already finished your food, but cannot leave the restaurant because the waiter inexplicably does not just take your card when he gave you the check. And when he does, takes 10 minutes to come back. Generally not seen outside the US, where waiters, more smartly, carry credit card machines with them.

Finished my meal at Applebee's at 9pm, but didn't leave til 930, spending 30 minutes as a receipt hostage.