racketer

Noun

racketer (plural racketers)

1. (obsolete) One who is dissipated and given to carousing.
   • 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 .1754, Samuel Richardson, The History of Sir Charles Grandison, Bart - Volume 1, page 113
   • Harriet is like to be a 'racketer.1898 February, K.L. Montgomery, “Sir Charles Grandison”, in Monthly Packet, volume 95, number 564, page 166
2. One who is skilled in racket sports.
   • Having passed his two or three years there, and been signalised as the best cricketer, the best racketer, the greatest dunce, and sometimes the most accomplished smoker and drinker of his time, he goes home finished at sixteen, and sets up for himself.1851, Stalk-Warroga, “Sketches of Irish Society”, in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, volume 18, page 669
   • Few things inspire respect more readily amongst boys than dexterity and proficiency in manly exercises; ane when any one can boast of having an eye and a hand for billiards, and a head for whist, as well as being a good rider, cricketer, racketer, runner and jumper, he is pretty sure to take a...1866, George Hatton Colomb, The Shadows of Destiny; a Romance - Volume 1, page 314
3. One who instigates or perpetrates a racket (fraud or swindle), a hustler, swindler, or racketeer.
   • Finally he advised the hustler he had lined up a sucker who looked good for at least a ten-thousand-dollar score. (The racketer always classifies his individual earnings as a score when discussing business.)1927 November 19, “Broadway Rackets”, in The New Yorker, volume 3, numbers 38-53, page 105
   • There is a big racketer whose name is known to everybody here who used to be in my neighborhood. I sent word to him "Čome here and start your club."1933, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Investigation of So-called "rackets", page 617