racket

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹækɪt/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ækɪt

Etymology 1

From Middle English raket. Possibly cognate with Middle French rachette, requette (“palm of the hand”). Possibly from Arabic رَاحَةْ اَلْيَد (rāḥat al-yad, “palm of the hand”), although this is doubtful. Instead, the term is more likely to be derived from Dutch raketsen, from Middle French rachasser (“to strike (the ball) back”).

Noun

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 birdie in badminton.

   Synonyms: bat, paddle, racquet

   • 1922, Michael Arlen, “3/19/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

     Ivor had acquired more than a mile of fishing rights with the house ; he was not at all a good fisherman, but one must do something ; one generally, however, banged a ball with a squash-racket against a wall.

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.

Alternative forms

• (sporting implement): racquet

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

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

• racket (sports equipment) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• list of racket sports on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

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

Noun

racket (plural rackets)

1. A loud noise.

   Synonyms: din, noise, ruckus

   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?

   • 1997, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 52, in Mason & Dixon, 1st US edition, New York: Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, part Two: America, page 501:

     Vast flights of starlings, fleeing the racket, beat across the sky at high speed, like Squall-clouds,— Evening at Noon-tide.

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

Translations

Verb

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

Anagrams

• Eckart, retack, tacker

Dutch

Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:

racket

Wikipedia ^nl

Etymology

Borrowed from English racket.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: rac‧ket

Noun

racket n (plural rackets, diminutive racketje n)

1. racket (sports implement)

   Synonym: raket

Derived terms

• tennisracket

French

Etymology

From English racket.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁa.kɛt/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

racket m (plural rackets)

1. racketeering
2. racket, extortion

Further reading

• “racket”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Italian

Italian Wikipedia has an article on:

racket

Wikipedia ^it

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English racket.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈra.ket/
• Rhymes: -aket
• Hyphenation: ràc‧ket

Noun

racket m (invariable)

1. racketeering
2. racket, extortion

Derived terms

• antiracket

References

Norwegian Bokmål

Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:

racket

Wikipedia ^no

Alternative forms

• rekkert

Etymology

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

Noun

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

• “racket” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Alternative forms

• rekkert

Etymology

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

Noun

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

• “racket” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Romanian

Etymology

From French racket.

Noun

racket m (plural rackeți)

1. racketeer

Declension

Swedish

Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:

racket

Wikipedia ^sv

Noun

racket c

1. (sports) a racket

Usage notes

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

Declension

Derived terms

• badmintonracket
• bordtennisracket
• racketsport
• squashracket
• tennisracket

Noun

racket

1. definite singular of rack

References

• racket in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• racket in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• racket in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)