cricket

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹɪk.ɪt/

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• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -ɪkɪt

From Middle English creket, crykett, crykette, from Old French crequet, criquet (with diminutive -et) from criquer (“to make a cracking sound; creak”), from Middle Dutch kricken (“to creak; crack”), related to Middle English creken (“to creak”). Compare Middle Dutch krikel, criekel, crekel (“cricket”) (with diminituve -el), Middle Low German krikel, krekel (“cricket”), German Kreckel (“cricket”). More at creak.

cricket (plural crickets)

1. 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.
2. A wooden footstool.
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.

cricket (1)

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

cricket (uncountable)

1. (sports) A game played outdoors with bats and a ball between two teams of eleven, popular in England and many Commonwealth countries.
2. (chiefly Britain) An act that is fair and sportsmanlike, derived from the sport.

   Synonyms: not cricket, unsportsmanlike

   That player's foul wasn't cricket!

The sense "An act that is fair and sportsmanlike" is always used in negative constructions (not cricket) and is not restricted to sports usage.

• Appendix:Glossary of cricket

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.

Borrowed from English cricket.

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• Hyphenation: cric‧ket

cricket n (uncountable)

1. cricket (sport)

• IPA^(key): /kʁi.kɛt/

cricket m (uncountable)

1. cricket (sport)

• “cricket” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

cricket m

1. cricket (sport)

cricket m (uncountable)

1. cricket (sport)

• kricket (less common)

cricket c (uncountable)

1. cricket (sport)