noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   One who commits crimes (especially fraud, bribery, loansharking, extortion etc.) to aid in running a shady or illegal business.
2. 2
   someone who commits crimes for profit (especially one who obtains money by fraud or extortion) wordnet
3. 3
   One who instigates or has involvement with a racket.

Verb

1. 1
   to carry out illegal business activities or criminal schemes.
2. 2
   carry on illegal business activities involving crime wordnet
3. 3
   to commit crimes systematically as part of a criminal organization.

Synonyms

All synonyms

bad personbanditbetrayerblack marketeerblackmailerbloodsucker

Etymology

From racket + -eer.

Related phrases

loan shark

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.