racket

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
racket1 (also racquet)

▶noun

• 1 a bat with a round or oval frame strung with catgut, nylon, etc., used especially in tennis, badminton, and squash.

• 2 chiefly N. Amer. a snowshoe resembling this.

– origin C16: from Fr. raquette (see rackets).

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
racket2

▶noun

• 1 a loud unpleasant noise.

  ■ archaic the liveliness of fashionable society.

• 2 informal a fraudulent scheme for obtaining money.

  ■ a person's line of business.

▶verb (rackets, racketing, racketed)

• 1 make a racket.

• 2 (racket about/around) enjoy oneself socially.

– derivatives
rackety adjective.

– origin C16: perh. imitative of clattering.