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racket - 11 dictionary results

rack⋅et

1  [rak-it]
Use racket in a Sentence
–noun
1. a loud noise or clamor, esp. of a disturbing or confusing kind; din; uproar: The traffic made a terrible racket in the street below.
2. social excitement, gaiety, or dissipation.
3. an organized illegal activity, such as bootlegging or the extortion of money from legitimate business people by threat or violence.
4. a dishonest scheme, trick, business, activity, etc.: the latest weight-reducing racket.
5. Usually, the rackets. organized illegal activities: Some say that the revenue from legalized gambling supports the rackets.
6. Slang.
a. an occupation, livelihood, or business.
b. an easy or profitable source of livelihood.
–verb (used without object)
7. to make a racket or noise.
8. to take part in social gaiety or dissipation.
Origin:
1555–65; 1890–95 for def. 6; metathetic var. of dial. rattick; see rattle 1

Synonyms:
1. tumult, disturbance, outcry. See noise.

Antonyms:
1, 2. tranquillity.

rack⋅et

2  [rak-it]
–noun
1. a light bat having a netting of catgut or nylon stretched in a more or less oval frame and used for striking the ball in tennis, the shuttlecock in badminton, etc.
2. the short-handled paddle used to strike the ball in table tennis.
3. rackets, (used with a singular verb) racquet (def. 1).
4. a snowshoe made in the form of a tennis racket.
Also, racquet (for defs. 1, 2, 4).

Origin:
1490–1500; < MF raquette, rachette, perh. < Ar rāḥet, var. of rāḥah palm of the hand

Related forms:
rack⋅et⋅like, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To racket
rack·et 1 also rac·quet   (rāk'ĭt)   
n.  
  1. A device consisting of an oval frame with a tight interlaced network of strings and a handle, used to strike a ball or shuttlecock in various games.
  2. A wooden paddle, as one used in table tennis.

[Middle English raket, a kind of handball, from Old French rachette, palm of the hand, racket, from Medieval Latin rascheta, palm, from Arabic rāḥat (al-yad), palm (of the hand), bound form of rāḥa; see rḥ in Semitic roots.]
rack·et 2   (rāk'ĭt)   
n.  
  1. A loud distressing noise. See Synonyms at noise.
  2. A dishonest business or practice, especially one that obtains money through fraud or extortion.
    1. An easy, profitable means of livelihood.
    2. Slang A business or occupation.
intr.v.   rack·et·ed, rack·et·ing, rack·ets
  1. To make or move with a loud distressing noise.
  2. To lead an active social life.

[Origin unknown.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Racket

Rack"et\, n. A scheme, dodge, trick, or the like; something taking place considered as exciting, trying, unusual, or the like; also, such occurrence considered as an ordeal; as, to work a racket; to stand upon the racket. [Slang]

Racket

Rack"et\, n. [F. raquette; cf. Sp. raquets, It. racchetta, which is perhaps for retichetta, and fr. L. rete a net (cf. Reticule); or perh. from the Arabic; cf. Ar. r[=a]ha the palm of the hand (used at first to strike the ball), and OF. rachette, rasquette, carpus, tarsus.] [Written also racquet.]

1. A thin strip of wood, having the ends brought together, forming a somewhat elliptical hoop, across which a network of catgut or cord is stretched. It is furnished with a handle, and is used for catching or striking a ball in tennis and similar games.

Each one [of the Indians] has a bat curved like a crosier, and ending in a racket. --Bancroft.

2. A variety of the game of tennis played with peculiar long-handled rackets; -- chiefly in the plural. --Chaucer.

3. A snowshoe formed of cords stretched across a long and narrow frame of light wood. [Canada]

4. A broad wooden shoe or patten for a man horse, to enable him to step on marshy or soft ground.

Racket court, a court for playing the game of rackets.

Racket

Rack"et\, v. t. To strike with, or as with, a racket.

Poor man [is] racketed from one temptation to another. --Hewyt.

Racket

Rack"et\, n. [Gael. racaid a noise, disturbance.]

1. confused, clattering noise; din; noisy talk or sport.

2. A carouse; any reckless dissipation. [Slang]

Racket

Rack"et\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Racketed; p. pr. & vb. n. Racketing.]

1. To make a confused noise or racket.

2. To engage in noisy sport; to frolic. --Sterne.

3. To carouse or engage in dissipation. [Slang]
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : racket
Spanish: raquetaraqueta,
German: der Schläger,
Japanese: ラケット
More Translations »

racket  (1)
"loud noise," 1565, said to be imitative. Meaning "dishonest activity" (1785) is perhaps from racquet, via notion of "game," reinforced by rack-rent "extortionate rent" (1591), from rack (1). Racketeer (v. and n.) first recorded 1928.

racket  (2)
"bat used in tennis, etc.," see racquet.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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