Other forms: rackets
A racket is the stringed bat used in tennis, badminton and squash. A tennis racket, restring a racket, swing the racket.
It is spelled racket or racquet and both are accepted, with racquet slightly more formal and commoner in squash. The same spelling covers two unrelated words. A racket is also a loud unpleasant noise — stop that racket — which is very common in British speech. And a racket is a dishonest business or a scam: a protection racket, the whole thing is a racket, which came from American organised crime and is now general.
1nounracketA bat with a stringed frame, used in tennis and similar games.
“The racket needs restringing before the match.”
2nounloudA loud unpleasant noise.
“What is that racket coming from upstairs?”
3noundishonestA dishonest business or scheme.
“The whole parking scheme is a racket.”
racket is a bat, a noise, or a scam.
Also accepted in games: racquet
The bat comes through French from Arabic rahat al-yad, the palm of the hand — because the game was first played with the hand before anybody strung a frame. The noise and the scam are separate words of unknown origin that happened to land on the same spelling.
Middle French
rachasser — to strike (the ball) back
Dutch
raketsen
Arabic
رَاحَةْ اَلْيَد — palm of the hand
Middle English
raket
English, today
racket
Built from
From Middle English raket, of unknown. Possibly cognate with Middle French rachette, requette (“palm of the hand”). From Arabic رَاحَةْ اَلْيَد (“palm of the hand”). Alternatively, the term might be derived from Dutch raketsen instead, from Middle French rachasser (“to strike (the ball) back”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Sports & Fitness, Sounds & Noises