racket 
Rackets. 
", b, racket and ball used in Italy in the i7th century ; i, d, racket 
and ball in present use. 
across which a network of cord or catgut is 
stretched, and to which a handle is attached. 
But kanstow pleyen raket to and fro? 
Chaucer, Troilus, iv. 460. 
Th' Hail, which the Winde full in his face doth yerk, 
Smarter than Racquets in a Court re-ierk 
Balls 'gainst the Walls of the black-boorded house. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, ii., The Captaines. 
'Tis but a ball bandied to and fro, and every man car- 
ries a racket about him, to strike it from himself among 
the rest of the company. 
Swft, Tale of a Tub, Author's Pref. 
2. pi. A modern variety of the old game of 
tennis. 
He could shoot* play rackets, whist, and cricket better 
than most people, and was a consummate horseman on 
any animal under any circumstances. 
Whyte Melville, White Hose, I. xili. 
Some British officers, playing nifl.it.*: had struck a ball 
to where he was sitting, nineteenth Century, XXVI. 801. 
3. A kind of net. HaUiwell. 4. A snow-shoe: 
an Anglicized form of the French raqtiette. 
[Bare.] 
Their [the Canadian Indians') Uogges are like Foxes, 
which spend not, neuer glue oner, and haue rackets tyed 
vnder their feet, the better to runne on the snow. 
1'urchas, Pilgrimage, p. 758. 
6. A broad wooden shoe or patten for a horse 
or other draft-animal, to enable him to step on 
marshy or soft ground. 6. A bird's tail-fea- 
ther shaped like a racket ; a spatule. The racket 
may result from a spatulate enlargement of the webs 
at or near the end of the feather ; or from the lack, natu- 
ral or artificial, of webbing along a part of the feather, 
beyond which the feather is webbed ; or from coiling of 
the end of the feather. These formations are exhibited 
in the motmots, in some humming-birds and birds of para- 
dise, and in various others, and are illustrated in the fig- 
ures under Monwtus, Prionilurus, and Cincinnurus. Some 
feathers springing from the head acquire a similar shape. 
See cut under I'antia. 
7f. A musical instrument of the seventeenth 
century, consisting of a mouthpiece with a dou- 
ble reed, and a wooden tube repeatedly bent 
upon itself, and pierced with several finger- 
holes. Its compass was limited, and the tone weak and 
difficult to produce. Several varieties or sizes were made, 
as of the bombard, which it resembled. Early in the 
eighteenth century it was replaced by the modern bassoon. 
8. An organ-stop giving tones similar to those 
of the above instrument. 
racket' 2 t (rak'et), v. t. [(racket 2 , .] To strike 
with or as if with a racket ; toss. 
Thus, like a tennis-ball, is poor man racketed from one 
temptation to another, till at last he hazard eternal ruin. 
Hewyt, Nine Sermons, p. 60. 
racket-court (rak'et-kort), n. A court or area 
in which the game of rackets is played ; a ten- 
nis-court. 
racketer (rak'et-er), n. [< racket 1 + -er 1 .] A 
person given to racketing or noisy frolicking ; 
one who leads a gay or dissipated life. 
At a private concert last night with my cousins and Miss 
Clements ; and again to be at a play this night ; I shall be 
a racketer, I doubt. 
Richardson, Sir Charles Grandison, I. letter xvi. 
racket-ground (rak'et-ground), . Same as 
racket-court. 
The area, it appeared from Mr. Roker's statement, was 
the racket-ground. Dickens, Pickwick, xli. 
rackettail (rak'et-tal), n. A humming-bird 
of the genus Discurus and related forms, having 
two feathers of the tail shaped like rackets. 
racket-tailed (rak'et-tald), . Having the 
tail formed in part like a racket ; having a 
racket on the tail, as the motmots (Momotidse), 
certain humming-birds (Discurus, etc.), or a 
parrakeet of the genus Prionitiiriix. 
4930 
rackety (rak'et-i). (I. [< racket 1 + -y 1 .] 
Making or characterized by a racket or noise ; 
noisy: as, a rackety company orplace. [Colloq.] 
This strange metamorphosis in the racketty little Irish- 
man. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, vii. (Davies.) 
In the rackety bowling-alley. 
C. F. Woolson, Anne, p. 193. 
rack-fisht(rak'fish), . [Origin unknown ; prob. 
either for * wrack fish or for rockfisli, q. v.] A 
fish, of what kind is not determined. *'. Clarke, 
Four Plantations in America (1670), p. 5. 
rack-hook (rak'huk), n. In a repeating clock, 
a part of the striking-mechanism which en- 
gages the teeth of the rack in succession when 
the hours are struck ; the gathering-piece or 
pallet. E. H. Knight. 
racking 1 (rak'ing), n. [Verbal u. of rack 1 , r.] 
1. The act of torturing on the rack. 2. Naut., 
a piece of small stuff used to rack a tackle. 
3. In metallurgical operations, same as rag- 
ging. 2. 
racking 2 (rak'ing), n. [Verbal n. of rack*, .] 
In the manege, same as raek&. 
racking-can (rak'ing-kan), n. A vessel from 
which wine can be drawn without disturbing 
the lees, which remain at the bottom. 
racking-COCk (rak'iug-kok), . A form of 
faucet used in racking off wine or ale from the 
cask or from the lees in the fermenting-vat. 
racking-crook (rak'ing-kruk), n. A hook hung 
in an open chimney to support a pot or kettle. 
See trammel. Also called ratten-crook. 
racking-faucet (rakMng-fa'set), H. Same as 
rackiny-cock. 
racking-pump (rak'ing-pump), n. A pump for 
the transfer of liquors from vats to casks, etc.. 
when the difference of level is such as to pre- 
vent the use of a siphon or faucet. 
racking-table (rak'ing-ta'bl), n. A wooden 
table or frame used in Cornwall for washing 
tin ore, which is distributed over the surface 
of the table with a solid rake or hard brush, 
whence the name: sometimes corrupted into 
ragging-table. See framing-table. 
rackle (rak'l), r. t. andt.; pret. and pp. ruckled, 
ppr. rackling. [Perhaps a var. of rattle 1 ; but 
cf. racket 1 .'] To rattle. [Prov. Eng.] 
rackle (rak'l), u. [Cf . rackle, v., racket 1 .] Noisy 
talk. [Prov. Eng.] 
rackoonti " An obsolete spelling of racoon. 
rack-pin (rak'pin), n. A small rack-stick. 
rack-rail (rak'ral), n. A rail laid alongside the 
bearing-rails of a railway, having cogs into 
which works a cog-wheel on the locomotive : 
now used only in some forms of inclined-plane 
railway. 
rack-railway (rak'ral'wa), . A railway op- 
erated with the aid of rack-rails. 
The first rack-railway in France wag opened lately at 
Langres. Nature, XXXVII. 328. 
rack-rent (rak'rent), n. [< rack 1 , v., + rentf, 
n.] A rent raised to the highest possible limit ; 
a rent greater than any tenant can reasonably 
be expected to pay: used especially of land- 
rents in Ireland. 
Some thousand families are . . . preparing to go from 
hence and settle themselves in America, . . . the farmers, 
whose beneficial bargains are now become a rackrent too 
hard to be borne, and those who have any ready money, 
or can purchase any by the sale of their goods or leases, 
because they find their fortunes hourly decaying. 
Swtft, Intelligencer, No. 19. 
Rack-rent ... is the highest annual rent that can be ob- 
tained by the competition of those who desire to become 
tenants. It is not a strictly legal term, though sometimes 
used in Acts of Parliament ; in legal documents it is rep- 
resented by "the best rent that can be obtained without a 
fine." F. Pollock, Land Laws, p. 152. 
rack-rent (rak'rent), r. [< rack-rent, .] I. 
trans. To subject to the payment of rack-rent. 
The land-lord rack-renting and evicting him [the tenant] 
with the help of the civil and military resources of the 
law. W. S. Gregg, Irish Hist, for Eng. Readers, p. 160. 
II. intrans. To impose rack-rents. 
Hence the chief gradually acquired the characteristics 
of what naturalists have called " synthetic " and "pro- 
phetic" types combining the features of the modern gom- 
been-man with those of the modem rack-renting landlord. 
Huxley, Pop. Sci. Mo., XXXVI. 788. 
rack-renter (rak'ren /l 'ter), . [< rack-rent + 
-cr 1 .] 1. One who is subjected to the payment 
of rack-rent. 
The yearly rent of the land, which the rack-renter or un- 
der tenant pays. Locke. 
2. One who rack-rents his tenants. 
The entire Tory and Unionist alliance went on its knees, 
so to speak, during the Autumn to implore the rack-rent- 
ers to moderation. Contemporary Rev., LI. 124. 
rack-saw (rak'sa). n. A wide-toothed saw. 
racy 
rack-stick (rak'stik), . A stick suitably pre- 
pared for stretching or straining a rope or the 
like, as in fastening a load on a wagon. Rack- 
stick and lashing, a piece of two-inch rope, about u 
feet long, fastened to a pieket about If) inches long, hav- 
ing a hole in its head to receive the rope, farrmt; Mil. 
Encyc. 
rack-tail (rak'tal), . In a repeating clock, a 
bent arm connected with the striking-mecha- 
nism, having a pin at its end which drops upon 
the notched wheel that determines the number 
of strokes. 
rackwork (rak'werk), n. A piece of mecha- 
nism in which a rack is used; a rack and pinion 
or the like. See cut under rack 1 . 
raconteur (ra-k6n-ter'), n. [F., < raconter, re- 
late: see recount 1 .] A story-teller; a person 
given to or skilled in relating anecdotes, re- 
counting adventures, or the like. 
There never was, in my opinion, a raconteur, from 
Charles Lamb or Theodore Hook down to G ilbert a Beckett 
or H. J. Byron, . . . who Bpoke and told anecdotes at a 
dinner-table, . . . that was not conscious that he was go- 
ing to be funny. 
Lester Wallack, in Scribner's Mag., IV. 721. 
racoon, raccoon (ra-kou'), . [Formerly also 
rackoon, rackcoon, by apheresis from earlier 
arocoun, aroughcun, arottyhcontl, < Amer. Ind. 
arathcone, arrathkune, a racoon. Hence, by 
further apheresis, coon. The F. raton, racoon, 
is an accom. form, simulating F. raton, a rat: 
see ratten.] A small plantigrade carnivorous 
quadruped of the arctoid series of the order 
Feree, belonging to the family I'rocyonidee and 
genus Procyon. The common racoon is />. lotor, so 
called from its habit of dipping its food in water, as if 
Common Racoon {Procyon lotor). 
washing it, before eating. This animal is about 2 feet long, 
with a stout body, a bushy ringed tail, short limbs, pointed 
ears, broad face, and very sharp snout, of a general grayish 
coloration, with light and dark markings on the face. It 
is common in southerly parts of the United States, and 
feeds on fruits and other vegetable as well as animal sub- 
stances. Its flesh is eatable, and the fur, much used for 
making caps, is called coonskin. The racoon is readily 
tamed, and makes an amusing pet. Other members of the 
genus are P. psirra of California (perhaps only a nominal 
species) and the quite distinct /'. cancrivorus, the crab- 
eating racoon, of the warmer parts of America, known as 
the agovara. 
A beast they call Aroughcun, much like a badger, but 
vseth to liue on trees as squirrels doe. 
Capt. John Smith, Virginia, 1. 124. 
Quil-darting Porcupines and Jiackcoones be 
Castled in the hollow of an aged Tree. 
S. Clarke, Four Plantations in America (1670), p. 32. 
racoon-berry (ra-kou'ber"i), . The May-ap- 
ple, Podopliyllmnpeltatum. [U. 8.] 
racoon-dog (ra-kon'dog). . An Asiatic and 
Japanese animal of the family Canidse, Nycte- 
reutes jrrocyonoides, a kind of dog having an as- 
pect suggesting a racoon. See cut under Nyc- 
tereutes. 
racoon-oyster (ra-kon'ois'ter), . An uncul- 
tivated oyster growing on muddy banks ex- 
posed at low tide. [Southern coast, U. S.] 
racoon-perch (ra-kon'perch), n. The common 
yellow perch, Perca americana, of the Missis- 
sippi valley : so called from bands around the 
body something like those of a racoon's tail. 
See cut under perch 1 . 
Racovian (ra-ko'vi-an), a. and n. [< Hacow 
(in Poland) (NL. Bacoma) + -tan.] I. a. Per- 
taining or relating to Eakow, a town of Po- 
land, or to the Socinians, who made it their 
chief seat in the first part of the seventeenth 
century: as, the Bacorian Catechism (a popu- 
lar exposition of Socinianism : see catechism, 2). 
II. n. An inhabitant of Rakow, or an adhe- 
rent of the Unitarian doctrines formerly taught 
there; specifically, a Polish Socinian. 
racquet, . See racket^. 
racy (ra'si), a. [< race* + -y 1 .] 1. Having 
an agreeably peculiar flavor, of a kind that 
may be supposed to be imparted by the soil, 
as wine ; peculiarly palatable. 
