racket

Meanings

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 birdie in badminton.
• A snowshoe formed of cords stretched across a long and narrow frame of light wood.
• A broad wooden shoe or patten for a man or horse, to allow walking on marshy or soft ground.
• A loud noise.
• A fraud or swindle; an illegal scheme for profit.
• A carouse; any reckless dissipation.
• Something taking place considered as exciting, trying, unusual, etc. or as an ordeal.

Verb

• To strike with, or as if with, a racket.
• To make a clattering noise.
• To be dissipated; to carouse.

Origin

• From Middle English raket. Possibly cognate with Middle French rachette, requette. Possibly from Arabic رَاحَةْ [[يد, although this is doubtful. Instead, the term is more likely to be derived from Dutch raketsen, from Middle French rachasser ("to strike (the ball) back").
• Attested since the 1500s, of unclear origin; possibly a metathesis of the dialectal term rattick.