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Racket vs Blackmail - What's the difference?

racket | blackmail |

As nouns the difference between racket and blackmail

is that racket is a racquet: an implement with a handle connected to a round frame strung with wire, sinew, or plastic cords, and used to hit a ball, such as in tennis or a birdie in badminton while blackmail is a certain rate of money, corn, cattle, or other thing, anciently paid, in the north of England and south of Scotland, to certain men who were allied to robbers, or moss troopers, to be by them protected from pillage.

As verbs the difference between racket and blackmail

is that racket is to strike with, or as if with, a racket while blackmail is to extort money or favors from (a person) by exciting fears of injury other than bodily harm, such as injury to reputation, distress of mind, false accusation, etc.; as, to blackmail a merchant by threatening to expose an alleged fraud.

racket

English

Alternative forms

* (sporting implement) racquet

Etymology 1

From (etyl) raket

Noun

(en noun)
  • (label) A racquet: an implement with a handle connected to a round frame strung with wire, sinew, or plastic cords, and used to hit a ball, such as in tennis or a birdie in badminton.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Michael Arlen), title= “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, chapter=3/19/2
  • , passage=Ivor had acquired more than a mile of fishing rights with the house?; he was not at all a good fisherman, but one must do something?; one generally, however, banged a ball with a squash-racket against a wall.}}
  • (label) A snowshoe formed of cords stretched across a long and narrow frame of light wood.
  • A broad wooden shoe or patten for a man or horse, to allow walking on marshy or soft ground.
  • Synonyms
    * (implement) bat, paddle, racquet

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To strike with, or as if with, a racket.
  • * Hewyt
  • Poor man [is] racketed from one temptation to another.
    See also
    *

    Etymology 2

    Attested since the 1500s, of unclear origin; possibly a metathesis of the dialectal term

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A loud noise.
  • Power tools work quickly, but they sure make a racket .
    With all the racket they're making, I can't hear myself think!
    What's all this racket ?
  • A fraud or swindle; an illegal scheme for profit.
  • They had quite a racket devised to relieve customers of their money.
  • (dated, slang) A carouse; any reckless dissipation.
  • Synonyms
    * (loud noise) din, noise, ruckus * (fraud) con, fraud, scam, swindle
    Derived terms
    * racketeer, racketeering

    Anagrams

    *

    References

    ----

    blackmail

    Noun

    (-)
  • (archaic) A certain rate of money, corn, cattle, or other thing, anciently paid, in the north of England and south of Scotland, to certain men who were allied to robbers, or moss troopers, to be by them protected from pillage.
  • Payment of money exacted by means of intimidation; also, extortion of money from a person by threats of public accusation, exposure, or censure.
  • to levy blackmail
  • :: to extort money by threats, as of injury to one's reputation
  • (English law) Black rent, or rent paid in corn, meat, or the lowest coin, as opposed to white rent, which paid in silver.
  • Derived terms

    * emotional blackmail

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To extort money or favors from (a person) by exciting fears of injury other than bodily harm, such as injury to reputation, distress of mind, false accusation, etc.; as, to blackmail a merchant by threatening to expose an alleged fraud.
  • See also

    * extortion * protection racket ----