wicket

pronunciation

How to pronounce wicket in British English: UK [ˈwɪkɪt] word uk audio image

How to pronounce wicket in American English: US [ˈwɪkɪt] word us audio image

Noun:

cricket equipment consisting of a set of three stumps topped by crosspieces; used in playing cricket
a small arch used as croquet equipment
small gate or door (especially one that is part of a larger door)
small opening (like a window in a door) through which business can be transacted

Word Origin

wicket: wicket: [13] A wicket was originally a ‘small gate’, and etymologically the word appears to denote something that ‘turns’ – presumably on a hinge in opening and closing. It was borrowed from Old Northern French wiket, which in turn came from a Germanic source represented also by modern Swedish vika ‘fold, turn’. The set of stumps originally used for cricket resembled a gate – indeed the game’s first batsmen may have defended an actual gate in a sheep pen – and so it came to be known as a wicket. This was in the 18th century; the extension of the term to the ‘pitch’ dates from the mid 19th century.

wicket (n.): early 13c., "small door or gate," especially one forming part of a larger one, from Anglo-French wiket, Old North French wiket (Old French guichet, Norman viquet) "small door, wicket, wicket gate," probably from Proto-Germanic *wik- (cognates: Old Norse vik "nook," Old English wican "to give way, yield"), from PIE root *weik- (4) "to bend, wind" (see weak). The notion is of "something that turns." Cricket sense of "set of three sticks defended by the batsman" is recorded from 1733; hence many figurative phrases in British English.

4. Henry is an honest woman ; her canteen is very neat ; but it is bad to have a woman keep the wicket to the mouse-trap of the secret cells .

5. She decided against telling him that he had hit the ball through completely the wrong wicket .