cricket definition

English cricket definition

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹɪkɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪkɪt

Etymology 1

From Middle English creket, crykett, crykette, from Old French criket (with diminutive -et) from criquer (“to make a cracking sound; creak”), from Middle Dutch kricken (“to creak; crack”), from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn, from Proto-Germanic *krakōną, related to Middle English creken, criken (“to creak”), all ultimately of imitative origin.

Compare Dutch kriek (“cricket”), Middle Dutch krikel, criekel, crekel (“cricket”) (with diminituve -el), Middle Low German krikel, krekel (“cricket”), German Kreckel (“cricket”). More at creak.

Alternative forms

• crecket (dialectal and archaic)

Noun

cricket (plural crickets)

2. An insect in the order Orthoptera, especially family Gryllidae, that makes a chirping sound by rubbing its wing casings against combs on its hind legs.
   1. (US, slang, humorous, in the plural) In the form crickets: absolute silence; no communication.
3. A signalling device used by soldiers in hostile territory to identify themselves to a friendly in low visibility conditions.
4. A relatively small area of a roof constructed to divert water from a horizontal intersection of the roof with a chimney, wall, expansion joint, or other projection.
5. (aviation, slang) An aural warning sound consisting of a continuously-repeating chime, designed to be difficult for pilots to ignore.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Perhaps from a Flemish dialect of Dutch met de krik ketsen (“to chase a ball with a curved stick”)^[1].

Noun

cricket (uncountable)

2. (sports) A game played outdoors with bats and a ball between two teams of eleven, popular in England and many Commonwealth countries.
3. (chiefly Britain, usually in negative constructions) An act that is fair and sportsmanlike.

   Antonym: not cricket

   • 1954, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, volume 7, page 81:

     Robbins went on, "Henry wouldn't do anything that wasn't cricket. Me, I was raised in a river ward and I'm not bothered by niceties. […]

4. A variant of the game of darts. See Cricket (darts).

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Glossary of cricket

Verb

cricket (third-person singular simple present crickets, present participle cricketing, simple past and past participle cricketed)

1. (rare, intransitive) To play the game of cricket.
   • 1891 May 27, "A Cricketer in Low Circumstances", The Evening News (Sydney); cited in "What do we know about the first Test cricketer?", ESPNcricinfo, 7 August 2016

     Judge: Your family is in destitute circumstances. How do you get your living?
     

     Bannerman: By cricketing, your Worship.

Translations

Etymology 3

The etymology is unknown. A few similar words exist in Germanic languages, such as Norwegian krakk (“stool”).^[2]

Alternative forms

• crecket, cracket

Noun

cricket (plural crickets)

1. (dialectal) A wooden footstool.
   • 1746, Tim Bobbin, A View of the Lancashire Dialect; by Way of Dialogue, Manchester: Josehp Harrop, pages 31 in the 6th edition 1757, 13–14 in the 1797 edition:

     Heawe’er I pood o Cricket, on keaw’rt meh deawn ith Nook, o side oth' Hob

References

Basque cricket definition

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kriket/ [kri.ket̪]
• Rhymes: -iket

Noun

cricket inan

1. Alternative spelling of kriket

Declension

Further reading

• "cricket" in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia [Dictionary of the Basque Academy], euskaltzaindia.eus

Dutch cricket definition

Etymology

Borrowed from English cricket.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkrɪ.kət/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cric‧ket

Noun

cricket n (uncountable)

1. cricket (sport)

Derived terms

• cricketen

French cricket definition

Etymology

Borrowed from English cricket.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʁi.kɛt/

Noun

cricket m (uncountable)

1. cricket (sport)

Further reading

• “cricket”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian cricket definition

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English cricket.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkri.ket/
• Rhymes: -iket
• Hyphenation: crìc‧ket

Noun

cricket m (uncountable)

1. cricket (sport)

Further reading

• cricket in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Spanish cricket definition

Noun

cricket m (uncountable)

1. Alternative spelling of críquet

Further reading

• “cricket”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

Swedish cricket definition

Alternative forms

• kricket (less common)

Etymology

Borrowed from English cricket.

Noun

cricket c (uncountable)

1. cricket (sport)

Declension

Declension of cricket
	Uncountable
	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	cricket	cricketen	—	—
Genitive	crickets	cricketens	—	—

Derived terms