racket

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See also: Racket

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English raket, of uncertain origin.

Possibly cognate with Middle French rachette, requette (“palm of the hand”). From Arabic رَاحَةْ اَلْيَد (rāḥat al-yad, “palm of the hand”).[1]

Alternatively, the term might be derived from Dutch raketsen instead, from Middle French rachasser (“to strike (the ball) back”).[2]

Noun

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racket (plural rackets)

  2. (countable, sports) An implement with a handle connected to a round frame strung with wire, sinew, or plastic cords, and used to hit a ball, such as in tennis or a shuttlecock in badminton.
    Synonyms: bat, paddle, racquet
  3. (Canada) A snowshoe formed of cords stretched across a long and narrow frame of light wood.
  4. A broad wooden shoe or patten for a man or horse, to allow walking on marshy or soft ground.
  5. Effacing the truth. A generally small group of people in the know putting on a false persona or narrative to deceive many. Originaged in 1935 from Gen. Smedley Butler's book War Is a Racket.
Alternative forms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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Verb

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racket (third-person singular simple present rackets, present participle racketing, simple past and past participle racketed)

  1. To strike with, or as if with, a racket.
    • 1658, John Hewytt, Nine Select Sermons:
      Poor man [is] racketed from one temptation to another.
Further reading
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Etymology 2

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A reference to the book, War is a Racket, by Smedley Butler.

Attested since the 1500s, of unclear origin; possibly a metathesis of the dialectal term rattick (“to shake, rattle”).[3]

Noun

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racket (plural rackets)

  1. A loud noise.
    Synonyms: din, noise, ruckus, row
    Power tools work quickly, but they sure make a racket.
    With all the racket they're making, I can't hear myself think!
    What's all this racket?
  2. An illegal scheme for profit; a fraud or swindle; or both coinstantiated.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:deception
    prostitution and gambling controlled by rackets
    They had quite a racket devised to relieve customers of their money.
    • 1935, Smedley Butler, War is a Racket, page 1 & 7:
      War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives... Of course, it isn't put that crudely in war time. It is dressed into speeches about patriotism, love of country, and "we must all put our shoulders to the wheel," but the profits... skyrocket—and are safely pocketed.
    • 1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift, page 408:
      In six decades he had spotted all the rackets, smelled all the rats, and he was tired of being the absolute and sick master and boss of the inner self.
  3. (dated, slang) A carouse; any reckless dissipation.
  4. (dated, slang) Something taking place considered as exciting, trying, unusual, etc. or as an ordeal.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Verb

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racket (third-person singular simple present rackets, present participle racketing, simple past and past participle racketed)

  1. (intransitive) To make a clattering noise.
  2. (intransitive, dated) To be dissipated; to carouse.

References

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  1. ^ American Heritage Dictionary, Racket; https://web.archive.org/web/20130714083021/http://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=racket
  2. ^ Gillmeister, Heiner (1998) Tennis: A Cultural History, Washington Square, N.Y.: New York University Press, →ISBN, pages 5, 123
  3. ^ “racket”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

Anagrams

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Dutch

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Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nl

Etymology

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Borrowed from English racket.

Pronunciation

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  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: rac‧ket

Noun

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racket n (plural rackets, diminutive racketje n)

  1. [[]]racket (sports implement)
    Synonym: raket

Derived terms

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French

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Etymology

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From English racket.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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racket m (plural rackets)

  1. racketeering
  2. racket, extortion

Further reading

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Italian

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Italian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia it

Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English racket.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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racket m (invariable)

  1. racketeering
  2. racket, extortion

Derived terms

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References

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  1. ^ racket in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)

Norwegian Bokmål

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Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Arabic رَاحَة (rāḥa, “palm of the hand”), via French raquette, and English racket.

Noun

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racket m (definite singular racketen, indefinite plural racketer, definite plural racketene)

  1. (sports) a racket or racquet
  2. (table tennis) a bat, or paddle (US)

References

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Norwegian Nynorsk

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Arabic رَاحَة (rāḥa, “palm of the hand”), via French raquette, and English racket.

Noun

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racket m (definite singular racketen, indefinite plural racketar, definite plural racketane)

  1. (sports) a racket or racquet
  2. (table tennis) a bat, or paddle (US)

References

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Romanian

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Etymology

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From French racket.

Noun

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racket m (plural rackeți)

  1. racketeer

Declension

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Declension of racket
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) racket racketul (niște) rackeți rackeții
genitive/dative (unui) racket racketului (unor) rackeți rackeților
vocative racketule rackeților

Swedish

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Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia sv

Noun

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racket c

  1. (sports) a racket

Usage notes

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Controversial grammatical gender. Both "ett racket" and "ett rack" (perhaps from interpreting "-et" as a neuter definite suffix) are fairly common as well.

Declension

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Declension of racket
nominative genitive
singular indefinite racket rackets
definite racketen racketens
plural indefinite racketar racketars
definite racketarna racketarnas

Derived terms

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Noun

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racket

  1. definite singular of rack

References

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