racketeer
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
racketeersimple
-
racketeerssimple
-
have racketeeredperfect
-
has racketeeredperfect
-
am racketeeringprogressive
-
are racketeeringprogressive
-
is racketeeringprogressive
-
have been racketeeringperfect progressive
-
has been racketeeringperfect progressive
Past
-
racketeeredsimple
-
had racketeeredperfect
-
was racketeeringprogressive
-
were racketeeringprogressive
-
had been racketeeringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of racketeer
Explanation
A racketeer is a criminal, especially one who's involved in organized white collar crime or dishonest business dealings. If a lawyer embezzles money from her clients, she is a racketeer. Racketeers commit crimes in order to make money for themselves. In many cases, a racketeer is a business owner or professional who falsifies financial records to hide income or bills clients for more than they owe. A racket is a scam or fake service that's run by a racketeer — and the crime itself, if the racketeer is caught, is called racketeering. The source of all three words is thought to be racquet, and the idea of a scam as a "game."
Vocabulary lists containing racketeer
1984
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The Global New Light of Myanmar said the Yatai firm of Chinese-Cambodian alleged racketeer She Zhijiang was "the entity involved" in running the Shwe Kokko area.
From Barron's ● Nov. 19, 2025
“This is a big town now,” Marlowe says to Eddie Mars, a gambling racketeer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 10, 2024
Browner, Chambers and Lesley Chappell Green, 35, of Stone Mountain were all convicted of racketeer influenced and corrupt organization conspiracy.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 22, 2023
There is no evidence Butler gained materially from being “a racketeer for capitalism” — his words — who “helped rape a half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street.”
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 18, 2022
If you should set a thief to catch a thief, what does it take to stop a racketeer...?
From The Ambulance Made Two Trips by Leinster, Murray
Why it needed to be a mysterious omnipotent organization, I don’t know; perhaps plain old racketeers and crooked gamblers felt insufficiently nefarious to power a boxing story in 2024.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2024
Mr. Civiletti was known for prosecuting racketeers, public corruption, white-collar crime and drug trafficking.
From New York Times ● Oct. 17, 2022
“They were adjudicated as racketeers — held in the same regard as gangsters,” said Sharon Eubanks, the former U.S. attorney who led the case.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 25, 2021
Brewer-Giorgio, now 78, said the FBI enlisted Presley as an undercover agent in 1976 to help the agency infiltrate a criminal organization called “The Fraternity,” which was apparently made up of dozens of racketeers.
From Time ● Aug. 15, 2017
And the fact that I was “the young Brother Baldwin” increased my value with those same pimps and racketeers who had helped to stampede me into the church in the first place.
From "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin
In 36 years in Chicago, I have never been held up, robbed or racketeered.
From Time Magazine Archive
But Guo was later convicted on charges of racketeering, fraud and money laundering.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026
Johnson was imprisoned late last year for contempt of court after being found civilly liable for $71 million in damages in a civil racketeering case.
From Slate ● May 28, 2026
Under the first, he wrote RICO, a reference to the racketeering law.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026
Thales, formerly known as Thomson-CSF, and Zuma face more than a dozen charges of fraud, corruption and racketeering.
From Barron's ● May 14, 2026
They were mostly in for white-collar crimes, money schemes, fraud and racketeering.
From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
