racket

pronunciation

How to pronounce racket in British English: UK [ˈrækɪt] word uk audio image

How to pronounce racket in American English: US [ˈrækɪt] word us audio image

Noun:

a loud and disturbing noise
an illegal enterprise (such as extortion or fraud or drug peddling or prostitution) carried on for profit
the auditory experience of sound that lacks musical quality; sound that is a disagreeable auditory experience
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
Verb:

celebrate noisily, often indulging in drinking; engage in uproarious festivities
make loud and annoying noises
hit (a ball) with a racket

Word Origin

racket: racket: Racket for playing tennis [16] and racket ‘noise’ [16] are unrelated words. The former was borrowed from French raquette, which originally meant ‘palm of the hand’. This goes back via Italian racchetta to Arabic rāhat, a variant of rāha ‘palm of the hand’. The origins of racket ‘noise’ are not known, although the probability is that it started life as a verbal imitation of an uproar.

racket (n.1): "loud noise," 1560s, perhaps imitative. Klein compares Gaelic racaid "noise." Meaning "dishonest activity" (1785) is perhaps from racquet, via notion of "game," reinforced by rack-rent "extortionate rent" (1590s), from rack (n.1). But it might as well be an extended sense of "loud noise" by way of "noise or disturbance made to distract a pick-pocket's victim."

racket (n.2): "handled paddle or netted bat used in tennis, etc.;" see racquet.

2. Decades of insurgency have created splinter movements , violent mafia racket s and clan rivalries .

3. They tend to live in large colonies that make a racket when they fly out of their caves at the end of the day .

4. Their activities have grown into a multi-billion dollar racket with tentacles reaching far into state institutions and criminal connections that stretch from abidjan to odessa .