Cricket definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

View all »
Definitions (21)

American Heritage Dictionary (5)

noun Any of various insects of the family Gryllidae, having long antennae and legs adapted for leaping. The males of many species produce a shrill chirping sound by rubbing the front wings together.
noun Sports An outdoor game played with bats, a ball, and wickets by two teams of 11 players each.
noun Good sportsmanship and fair conduct: It's not cricket to cheat at cards.

2 more from this dictionary »

Century Dictionary (10)

Any saltatorial orthopterous insect of the family Gryllidæ (or Achetidæ), or of a group Achetina: sometimes extended to certain species of the related family Locustidæ. In both these families the antennæ are very long and filamentous, with sometimes upward of 100 joints, and the ovipositor is often very large. It is to the saltatorial forms, as distinguished from the Acridiidæ (grasshoppers), that the name cricket is usually applied. The best-known species is the common house-cricket, Acheta or Gryllus domestica. The field-cricket is Acheta or Gryllus campestris; the mole-cricket, Gryllotalpa vulgaris; the grand cricket of New Zealand, Anostostoma or Dinacrida heteracantha. See also sand-cricket.
An open-air game played with bats, ball, and wickets, long peculiar to England, but now popular throughout the British empire, and somewhat less so in the United States and elsewhere. It is played by two opposite sets or sides of players, numbering 11 players each. Two wickets of 3 stumps 27 inches high, with 2 bails each 4 inches long on top, are placed in the ground 22 yards apart. A line known as the bowling-crease is drawn through and parallel to the stumps, 6 feet 8 inches in length, behind which the bowler must stand. Four feet in front of this is another line, known as the popping-crease, of at least as great a length as the bowling-crease; between these two the batsman stands. After the rival sides have tossed for the choice of taking the bat or fielding, two men are sent to the wickets, bat in hand. The opposite or fielding side are all simultaneously engaged: one (the bowler) being stationed behind one wicket for the purpose of bowling his ball against the opposite wicket, where another player (the wicket-keeper) stands ready to catch the ball should it not be batted; the other fielders are placed in different parts of the field, so as to catch or stop the ball after it has been struck by the batsman or missed by the wicket-keeper. Their positions and names are shown in the diagram. It is the object of the batsman to prevent the ball delivered by the bowler from knocking the balls off his wicket, either by merely stopping the ball with his bat or driving it away to a distant part of the field. Should the ball be driven to any distance, or not stopped by the wicket-keeper, the two batsmen run across and exchange wickets once or more. Each time this is done is counted as a “run,” and is marked to the credit of the striker. If the batsman, however, allows the ball to carry away a bail or a stump, either when the ball is bowled or while he is running from wicket to wicket, if he knocks down any part of his own wicket, if any part of his person stops a ball that would otherwise have reached his wicket, or if he strikes a ball so that it is caught by one of the opposite party before it reaches the ground, he is “out”—that is, he gives up his place to one of his own side; and so the game goes on until 10 of the 11 men have played and been put out. This constitutes an “innings.” The side in the field then take their turn at the bat. Generally after two innings have been played by both sides the game comes to an end, that side winning which has scored the greater number of runs. A rude form of the game is known to have been played in the thirteenth century. From the club-ball originated … that pleasant and manly exercise, distinguished in modern times by the name of cricket. Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, p. 175.
To engage in the game of cricket; play cricket. They boated and they cricketed; they talk'd At wine, in clubs, of art, of politics. Tennyson, Princess, Prol.

7 more from this dictionary »

GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

WordNet (3)

Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (43)

It goes on to add that "there was no more exhilarating sight in English cricket than Ted Dexter (in photo) when he was savaging fast bowling." — Google News India - Top Stories
Since the row became public last week eminent figures in English cricket had suggested that if the ECB are forced to choose between Moores or Pietersen, then it will be the coach who is shown the door. — Home | Mail Online
Crisis in English cricket: Nasser Hussain has criticised Kevin Pietersen for his handling of his relationship with Peter Moores — Sport news, comment and results | guardian.co.uk
I think just about everyone over 30 in English cricket has. — Cricket365
Former ECB chairman Lord Maclaurin lamented the "sad" day in English cricket but backed the England and Wales Cricket Board for the way they handled it. — Top Stories - Google News

More examples »

Add a related word »
Related

Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the Same Context

tennis · grasshopper · soccer · hockey · locust · frog · cicada · rugby · insect · ant · croquet · mosquito

Word Family

cricket: crickets

Etymologies (7)

American Heritage Dictionary (3)

Middle English criket, from Old French criquet, from criquer, to click, of imitative origin.
Obsolete French criquet, piece of wood, from Old French, stick for a bowling game, perhaps from Middle Dutch cricke, walking stick.
Origin unknown.

Century Dictionary (4)

Early modern English also creket, from Middle English creket, crykett, crykette, from Old French crequet, later cricquet, French criquet = modern Provencal cricot, a cricket; with diminutive termination -et (-ot), equivalent to Middle Dutch, Dutch krekel = Middle Low German krikel, krekel, later G. kreckel, a cricket (cf. Welsh cricell, a cricket): ult. imitative (like F. cri-cri, a cricket, French dial. crikion, crekion, Old French crisnon, crinon, crignon, crinçon, crinchon, French dial. crignon, crinchon, a cricket or cicada, and Middle Dutch kriecker, krieckerken, a cricket, literally ‘creaker,’ ‘little creaker’), from the imitative verb, French criquer, creak, English crick, creak: see crick, creak.
The game is first mentioned in adjective d. 1598; prob. from Old French criquet, a stick which serves as a mark in the game of bowls (Roquefort); or perhaps another use of cricket, a low stool (applied to the wickets?). The word is certainly not from Anglo-Saxon crice, cryce, a staff, crutch, as usually asserted.
from cricket. n.
Origin uncertain; perhaps a particular use of French criquet, a small horse, also (a different word) a grasshopper. The word crock, a low stool, seems not to be related.

cricket

View all »
Definitions (21)

American Heritage Dictionary (5)

Century Dictionary (10)

GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

WordNet (3)

Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (43)

Tags

Stats

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

Add a related word »
Related

Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the Same Context

Word Family

Etymologies (7)

American Heritage Dictionary (3)

Century Dictionary (4)

Pronunciations
Record your own »

Charts

Recently looked up

Recent Favorites

Recent Pronunciations

cricket

View all » Definitions (21)

View all » Examples (43)

Tags

Stats

stop updating On Twitter

Photos from

Add a related word » Related

synonyms:

Etymologies (7)

Pronunciations Record your own »

Charts

Recently looked up

Recent Favorites

Recent Pronunciations

View all »
Definitions (21)

View all »
Examples (43)

stop updating
On Twitter

Add a related word »
Related

Pronunciations
Record your own »