wicket

[ wik-it ]
See synonyms for wicket on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a window or opening, often closed by a grating or the like, as in a door, or forming a place of communication in a ticket office, a teller's cage in a bank, etc.

  2. Croquet. a hoop or arch.

  1. a turnstile in an entrance.

  2. a small door or gate, especially one beside, or forming part of, a larger one.

  3. a small gate by which a canal lock is emptied.

  4. a gate by which a flow of water is regulated, as to a waterwheel.

  5. Cricket.

    • either of the two frameworks, each consisting of three stumps with two bails in grooves across the tops, at which the bowler aims the ball.

    • the area between these frameworks; the playing field.

    • one batsman's turn at the wicket.

    • the period during which two players bat together.

    • a batsman's innings that is not completed or not begun.

Idioms about wicket

  1. to be on / have / bat a sticky wicket, British Slang. to be at or have a disadvantage.

Origin of wicket

1
First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English wiket, from Anglo-French; Old French guischet, from Germanic; compare Middle Dutch wiket “wicket,” equivalent to wik- (akin to Old English wīcan “to yield”; see weak) + -et, noun suffix

Other words from wicket

  • half-wicket, noun

Words Nearby wicket

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

How to use wicket in a sentence

  • Over the past three seasons of the English County Championship, no cricketer has taken more wickets than Essex off spinner Simon Harmer.

  • It looked into a garden, whence a wicket-gate opened into a small paddock; all beyond was fine meadow-land and wood.

  • Those whose hoops had been knocked down assembled on one side, close to the side wicket.

    Digby Heathcote | W.H.G. Kingston
  • The gate itself, closed by enormous locks, had a wicket through which to examine those who asked admittance.

    Catherine de' Medici | Honore de Balzac
  • The conversation generally turned upon his old “missus,” who was buried under a yew tree, near the wicket gate.

  • The Disagreeable Woman's house is at the end of the row, and across the road is a wicket-gate leading—Where did it lead?

British Dictionary definitions for wicket

wicket

/ (ˈwɪkɪt) /


noun
  1. a small door or gate, esp one that is near to or part of a larger one

  2. US a small window or opening in a door, esp one fitted with a grating or glass pane, used as a means of communication in a ticket office, bank, etc

  1. a small sluicegate, esp one in a canal lock gate or by a water wheel

  2. US a croquet hoop

    • cricket either of two constructions, placed 22 yards apart, consisting of three pointed stumps stuck parallel in the ground with two wooden bails resting on top, at which the batsman stands

    • the strip of ground between these

    • a batsman's turn at batting or the period during which two batsmen bat: a third-wicket partnership

    • the act or instance of a batsman being got out: the bowler took six wickets

  3. keep wicket to act as a wicketkeeper

  4. on a sticky wicket informal in an awkward situation

Origin of wicket

1
C18: from Old Northern French wiket; related to Old Norse vikja to move

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