cricket

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. 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.
2. n. Sports An outdoor game played with bats, a ball, and wickets by two teams of 11 players each.
3. n. Good sportsmanship and fair conduct: It's not cricket to cheat at cards.
4. v. Sports To play the game of cricket.
5. n. A small wooden footstool.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. 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.
2. n. 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.
3. To engage in the game of cricket; play cricket.
4. n. A small, low stool; a footstool.

Wiktionary

1. n. 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.
2. n. A wooden footstool.
3. n. A signalling device used by soldiers in hostile territory to identify themselves to a friendly in low visibility conditions
4. n. 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.
5. n. US slang, in the plural Absolute silence; no communication. See crickets.
6. n. sports A game played outdoors with bats and a ball between two teams of eleven, popular in England and many Commonwealth countries.
7. n. chiefly UK An act that is fair and sportsmanlike, derived from the sport.
8. v. rare, intransitive To play the game of cricket.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) An orthopterous insect of the genus Gryllus, and allied genera. The males make chirping, musical notes by rubbing together the basal parts of the veins of the front wings.
2. n. A low stool.
3. n. A game much played in England, and sometimes in America, with a ball, bats, and wickets, the players being arranged in two contesting parties or sides.
4. n. (Arch.) A small false roof, or the raising of a portion of a roof, so as to throw off water from behind an obstacle, such as a chimney.
5. v. To play at cricket.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. play cricket
2. n. leaping insect; male makes chirping noises by rubbing the forewings together
3. n. a game played with a ball and bat by two teams of 11 players; teams take turns trying to score runs