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 ).
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]
racketorracquet2 (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]
racquetorracquet2
—n
—vb
[C16: from French raquette, from Arabic rāhat palm of the hand]
"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.
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.
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Example sentences
The birds woke us at five with a pleasant racket in the trees, the sun came up, and our experiment began.
The infuriating racket of generators pervades our neighborhood.
Accuracy and power are lost in this bending of the racket.
But, to purists, this natural noise may be even more unfair than the advancing of racket technologies.
The shop makes needlepoint into a wide range of items, including handbags and tennis racket covers.
Time was when flannel-clad collegians headed for campus with a tennis racket and ukulele.
Actually the student loan industry is quite noted for being a racket.
The racket is still commented on with awe in the village.
Let me try to explain the economics of the journalism racket.
The devices amplify speech, but they amplify the general racket in the room, too.