racket

1
[ rak-it ]
See synonyms for: racketracketedracketingrackets on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. a loud noise or clamor, especially of a disturbing or confusing kind; din; uproar: The traffic made a terrible racket in the street below.

  2. social excitement, gaiety, or dissipation.

  1. an organized illegal activity, such as bootlegging or the extortion of money from legitimate business people by threat or violence.

  2. a dishonest scheme, trick, business, activity, etc.: the latest weight-reducing racket.

  3. Usually the rackets . organized illegal activities: Some say that the revenue from legalized gambling supports the rackets.

  4. Slang.

    • an occupation, livelihood, or business.

    • an easy or profitable source of livelihood.

verb (used without object)
  1. to make a racket or noise.

  2. to take part in social gaiety or dissipation.

Origin of racket

1
First recorded in 1555–65; 1890–95 for def. 6; by transposition of dialectal rattick;see rattle1

synonym study For racket

1. See noise.

Other words for racket

Opposites for racket

Words that may be confused with racket

Words Nearby racket

Other definitions for racket (2 of 2)

racket2
[ rak-it ]

noun
  1. 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.

  1. rackets, (used with a singular verb) racquet (def. 1).

  2. a snowshoe made in the form of a tennis racket.

Origin of racket

2
First recorded in 1400–50; Middle English raket, a term for a kind of handball, from Middle French raquette, rachette “palm (of the hand)”; further origin uncertain; perhaps from Arabic rāḥet, variant of rāḥat (al-yad) “palm (of the hand)”
  • Also rac·quet (for defs. 1, 2, 4) .

Other words from racket

  • rack·et·like, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use racket in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for racket (1 of 2)

racket1

/ (ˈrækɪt) /


noun
  1. a noisy disturbance or loud commotion; clamour; din

  2. gay or excited revelry, dissipation, etc

  1. an illegal enterprise carried on for profit, such as extortion, fraud, prostitution, drug peddling, etc

  2. slang a business or occupation: what's your racket?

  3. music

    • a medieval woodwind instrument of deep bass pitch

    • a reed stop on an organ of deep bass pitch

verb
  1. (intr often foll by about) rare to go about gaily or noisily, in search of pleasure, excitement, etc

Origin of racket

1
C16: probably of imitative origin; compare rattle 1

British Dictionary definitions for racket (2 of 2)

racket2

racquet

/ (ˈrækɪt) /


noun
  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

verb
  1. (tr) to strike (a ball, shuttlecock, etc) with a racket

Origin of racket

2
C16: from French raquette, from Arabic rāhat palm of the hand

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012