subs. (old).—1. A confusion, sportive or the reverse: whence (2) generic for disorder, clamour or noisy merriment (B. E., c. 1696); also (3) any matter or happening (GROSE, 1785); also = a general verb of action. Thus, to RACKET ABOUT (ROUND, THROUGH, &c.) = to go the rounds at night; TO GO ON THE RACKET = to SPREE (q.v.); TO RAISE A RACKET = to make a disturbance; ‘WHAT’S THE RACKET?’ = ‘What’s going on?’; TO BE IN A RACKET = to be part in a design; TO WORK THE RACKET = to carry on a matter (see quots. 1785 and 1851, and cf. RIG, LAY, &c.: whence RACKET-MAN [thieves’] = a thief); TO STAND THE RACKET = (1) to pay a score, and (2) to take the consequences; WITHOUT RACKET = without a murmur; TO TUMBLE TO THE RACKET = (1) to understand, TO TWIG (q.v.), and (2) see quot. 1890; RACKETY (or RACKETTY) = (1) noisy, and (2) dissipated; RACKETER (or RACKAPELT) = a whoremonger or SPREESTER (q.v.).
1565. M. PARKER, Correspondence (Parker Society), 234. I send you a letter sent to me of the RACKET stirred up by Withers, of whom ye were informed, for the reformation of the university windows.
1598. SHAKESPEARE, 2 Henry IV., ii. 2. That the tennis-court keeper knows better than I; for it is a low ebb of linen with thee when thou KEEPEST NOT RACKET there.
1609. JONSON, The Case is Altered, iv. 4.
| Then think, then speak, then drink their sound again, | |
| And RACKET ROUND about this body’s court. |
1678. COTTON, Scarronides, or, Virgil Travestie (Works (1725) 100]. And leads me such a fearful RACKET.
1698. The Unnatural Mother [NARES]. Yonder haz been a most heavy RACKET, by the zide of the Wood, there is a curious hansom Gentlewoman lies as dead as a Herring, and bleeds like any stuck Pig.
c. 1707. Old Ballad, ‘The Long Vacation’ [D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy (1707), iii. 65].
| We made such a Noise, | |
| And con[found]ed a RACKET; | |
| My Landlady knew, | |
| I’d been searching the PLACKET. |
1751. SMOLLETT, Peregrine Pickle, ii. Goblins that… keep such a RACKET in his house, that you would think … all the devils in hell had broke loose upon him.
1753. RICHARDSON, The History of Sir Charles Grandison, I. 117. I shall be a RACKETER, I doubt.
1767. STERNE, Tristram Shandy, ii. 6. Pray, what’s all that RACKET over our heads.
1772. BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 281. Without the least demur or RACKET.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. RACKET. Some particular kinds of fraud and robbery are so termed, when called by their flash names … as the Letter-RACKET; the Order-RACKET … on the fancy of the speaker. In fact, any game may be termed a RACKET … by prefixing thereto the particular branch of depredation or fraud in question.
1789. G. PARKER, Life’s Painter, ‘The Happy Pair.’ And STOOD THE RACKET for a dram.
1809. BYRON, Lines to Mr. Hodgson.
| Then I’d ’scape the heat and RACKET | |
| Of the good ship, Lisbon Packet. |
1840. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends (The Merchant of Venice). Old Shylock was making a RACKET.
1870. JUDD, Margaret, i. 17. The wind blazed and RACKETED through the narrow space between the house and the hill.
1833. MACAULAY, Letter to Sister, in Trevelyan, I. 302. I have been RACKETING lately, having dined twice with Rogers, and once with Grant.
1851. LONGFELLOW, The Golden Legend, iv. What an infernal RACKET and riot!
1851. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, i. 268. It was difficult to pall him upon any RACKET (detect him in any pretence). Ibid., iii. 264. I joined because I felt I was getting RACKETTY, and giving my mind to nothing but drink. Ibid. (1856), The Great World of London, 46. ‘Lady and gentlemen RACKET-MEN,’ who steal cocks and hens…. ‘Noisy RACKET-MEN,’ who make off with china or crockery-ware from earthenware shops.
1868. Temple Bar, xxiv. 538. Snide-pitching … is a capital RACKET.
1882. Daily News, 27 Oct., 7. 4. Walker said, ‘I will STAND THE RACKET of this. I stole it because I was hard up.’
1885. Daily Telegraph, 16 Nov. He had been off ON THE RACKET perhaps for a week at a time. Ibid. (1886), 20 Feb. The unhappy dispenser of police law and his RACKETY son.
1886–96. MARSHALL, ‘Pomes’ from the Pink ’Un, 82. I’m on the POLLING-RACKET.
1888. BOLDREWOOD, Robbery under Arms, i. And now—that chain rubbed a sore, curse it!—all that RACKET’S over. Ibid., xi. It’s only some other cross CATTLE or HORSE RACKET.
1889. A. A. HAYES, Laramie Jack, in The Century Magazine, xxxix. 527. ‘Lucky I learned that signal RACKET.’
1890. New York Evening Post [Century], 29 Jan. To give the name of legislation to the proceedings at Albany … would be an abuse of language. The proper name was “TUMBLING TO THE RACKET.” The Assembly passed the bill without debate … much as they might pass a bill authorising a man to change his name.
1901. Troddles, 45. They had broken a chair and kicked up such an awful RACKET that Mrs. Bloggs had to make a reproachful request for consideration.
TO PLAY RACKET, verb. phr. (old).—To prove inconstant.
1369. CHAUCER, Troilus and Criseyde, IV. 461.
| But canstow PLEYEN RAKET, to and fro, | |
| Netle in, dokke out, now this, now that, Pandare? |
