Racket
name, noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 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. countable
"He bought a new tennis racket two days ago."
- 2 A loud noise.
"Power tools work quickly, but they sure make a racket."
- 3 an illegal enterprise (such as extortion or fraud or drug peddling or prostitution) carried on for profit wordnet
- 4 A snowshoe formed of cords stretched across a long and narrow frame of light wood. Canada
- 5 An illegal scheme for profit; a fraud or swindle; or both coinstantiated.
"prostitution and gambling controlled by rackets"
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- 6 a sports implement (usually consisting of a handle and an oval frame with a tightly interlaced network of strings) used to strike a ball (or shuttlecock) in various games wordnet
- 7 A broad wooden shoe or patten for a man or horse, to allow walking on marshy or soft ground.
- 8 Any industry or enterprise. informal
"They dropped out of the acting racket in 1953 and soon took up writing."
- 9 the auditory experience of sound that lacks musical quality; sound that is a disagreeable auditory experience wordnet
- 10 A carouse; any reckless dissipation. dated, slang
- 11 a loud and disturbing noise wordnet
- 12 Something taking place considered as exciting, trying, unusual, etc. or as an ordeal. dated, slang
- 1 To strike with, or as if with, a racket.
"Poor man [is] racketed from one temptation to another."
- 2 To make a clattering noise. intransitive
- 3 hit (a ball) with a racket wordnet
- 4 To be dissipated; to carouse. dated, intransitive
- 5 make loud and annoying noises wordnet
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- 6 celebrate noisily, often indulging in drinking; engage in uproarious festivities wordnet
- 1 A general-purpose, multiparadigm programming language descended from Scheme.
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"You have the same racket as I have."
Etymology
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”). Alternatively, the term might be derived from Dutch raketsen instead, from Middle French rachasser (“to strike (the ball) back”).
Attested since the 1500s, of unclear origin; possibly a metathesis of the dialectal term rattick (“to shake, rattle”).
Related phrases
More for "racket"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.