racket

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   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.

   He bought a new tennis racket two days ago.

2. 2
   verb

   To strike with, or as if with, a racket.

   Poor man [is] racketed from one temptation to another.

3. 3
   noun

   A loud noise.

   Power tools work quickly, but they sure make a racket.

4. 4
   noun

   An illegal scheme for profit; a fraud or swindle; or both coinstantiated.

   prostitution and gambling controlled by rackets

5. 5
   noun

   Any industry or enterprise.

   They dropped out of the acting racket in 1953 and soon took up writing.

6. 6
   noun

   an illegal enterprise (such as extortion or fraud or drug peddling or prostitution) carried on for profit

7. 7
   noun

   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

8. 8
   noun

   the auditory experience of sound that lacks musical quality

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”).