Dictionary Thesaurus Word Dynamo Quotes Reference Translator Spanish

racket

[rak-it]

noun

a loud noise or clamor, especially of a disturbing or confusing kind; din; uproar: The traffic made a terrible racket in the street below.

social excitement, gaiety, or dissipation.

an organized illegal activity, such as bootlegging or the extortion of money from legitimate business people by threat or violence.

a dishonest scheme, trick, business, activity, etc.: the latest weight-reducing racket.

Usually, the rackets. organized illegal activities: Some say that the revenue from legalized gambling supports the rackets.

EXPAND

Slang.

an occupation, livelihood, or business.

an easy or profitable source of livelihood.

COLLAPSE

verb (used without object)

to make a racket or noise.

to take part in social gaiety or dissipation.

:10

:09

:08

:07

:06

:05

:04

:03

:02

:01

Racket is always a great word to know.

So is spaz. Does it mean:

wonderful, great, masterful, deeply satisfying

a grotesquely awkward person; an eccentric person

LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

Origin:
1555–65; 1890–95 for def. 6; metathetic variant of dial. rattick; see rattle¹

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

Antonyms
1, 2. tranquillity.

Example Sentences

Hand ball and racket have achieved this season a popularity in this country never before obtained.

The infuriating racket of generators pervades our neighborhood.

The evidence suggests that he ran a vast racket of embezzlement, bribery and blackmail.

EXPAND

Hand ball and racket have achieved this season a popularity in this country never before obtained.

The infuriating racket of generators pervades our neighborhood.

The evidence suggests that he ran a vast racket of embezzlement, bribery and blackmail.

However, the birds commonly keep up a racket of vocalization, which suggests that they are not trying to remain hidden.

The underlying principle behind this seeming racket is not understood.

It doesn't produce a clanging racket or anything, but more of whirring whip-up.

The shop makes needlepoint into a wide range of items, including handbags and tennis racket covers.

Athletes don't buy running shoes that are too big, and they don't leave their tennis racket at home when they have a match.

The construction crane is now the city's emblem, the racket of drills its anthem.

The birds woke us at five with a pleasant racket in the trees, the sun came up, and our experiment began.

In many cases, participants' were clueless because many continued to snooze through the racket.

Wind noise is soon competing with engine racket for decibel supremacy, the cabin becoming louder as the speedo spins.

He was a superannuated school boy hanging around campus because he had a good racket going.

Then again, to maintain an insurgency, a racket is required.

Charity is a big problem and also a money making racket.

The keyboard is also legendary for the racket it makes when you type.

American pay-television is a reliable racket in general, thanks to the fees distributors pay for content.

But, to purists, this natural noise may be even more unfair than the advancing of racket technologies.

Racket innovations and fitter, stronger players are turning tennis into a game of ever faster shots with ever more topspin.

Using hunting permits as a political protection racket for the livestock community is what is so unconscionable about this hunt.

Bedsheets nailed up over the windows filter the sun but not the racket of diesel buses and clattering bicycles outside.

But if they bought a racket customized to his specifications, they.

And then grinned and said that this was all a big racket since the cure causes other problems and so on.

Accuracy and power are lost in this bending of the racket.

The message that war goes nowhere is as dreary as the racket generated by the work when it is moving.

With wide bodies, the racket gives less and the ball springs off both faster and more directly.

Nothing, the mercenary lawyers keep everything they collect from their protection racket themselves.

Soon, it appeared, the racket would be smashed to pieces.

The racket created by internal combustion hides a lot of noise created by the wind, the tires and so forth.

The racket rises on a much more vertical plane and finishes above the player's head, with the top pointing backward.

Despite the day being somewhat clammy and overcast, the cicadas are creating an absolute racket.

There's a racket as the beam snakes around the resin in blue bolts of light delivered via digital commands.

Time was when flannel-clad collegians headed for campus with a tennis racket and ukulele.

Onstage they are at once explosive and introspective, a little shy but not afraid to make a racket.

In any asylum for the refuge and comfort of such unfortunates it is but a few of the inmates who make a racket.

They run a highly profitable protection racket and the rule of law is a joke.

COLLAPSE

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

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.

the short-handled paddle used to strike the ball in table tennis.

rackets, (used with a singular verb) racquet (def. 1).

a snowshoe made in the form of a tennis racket.

Also, racquet (for defs. 1, 2, 4).

Origin:
1490–1500; < Middle French raquette, rachette, perhaps < Arabic rāḥet, variant of rāḥah palm of the hand

Related forms

rack·et·like, adjective

Link To racket

Collins

World English Dictionary

racket¹ (ˈrækɪt)

—n
1.	a noisy disturbance or loud commotion; clamour; din
2.	gay or excited revelry, dissipation, etc
3.	an illegal enterprise carried on for profit, such as extortion, fraud, prostitution, drug peddling, etc
4.	slang a business or occupation: what's your racket?
5.	music
	a. a medieval woodwind instrument of deep bass pitch
	b. a reed stop on an organ of deep bass pitch

—vb (often foll by about)
6.	rare to go about gaily or noisily, in search of pleasure, excitement, etc

[C16: probably of imitative origin; compare rattle¹]

racket or racquet² (ˈrækɪt)

—n
1.	a bat consisting of an open network of nylon or other strings stretched in an oval frame with a handle, used to strike the ball in tennis, badminton, etc
2.	a snowshoe shaped like a tennis racket

—vb
3.	(tr) to strike (a ball, shuttlecock, etc) with a racket

[C16: from French raquette, from Arabic rāhat palm of the hand]

racquet or racquet²

—n

—vb

[C16: from French raquette, from Arabic rāhat palm of the hand]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

racket

"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.

EXPAND

racket

"bat used in tennis, etc.," see racquet.

COLLAPSE

Slang Dictionary

racket definition

n.
noise. : Cut out that racket! Shut up!
n.
a deception; a scam. : This is not a service station; it's a real racket!
n.
any job. : I've been in this racket for twenty years and never made any money.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source

Partners:Word Bloglines Citysearch The Daily Beast Ask Answers Ask Kids Life123 Sendori Thesaurus

About Privacy Policy Terms of Use API Careers Advertise with Us Contact Us Help