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A loud noise, a shady scheme, or the thing you swing at tennis balls.
means It can mean a clattering din, an illegal money-making scheme, or a stringed paddle for ball sports.
from The noise sense may echo its own clatter; the sports racket comes from Arabic rahat, meaning palm of the hand, via French raquette.
Criminal senseBorn in 1810s American slang for fraud.
Two rootsNoise and tennis arrived from unrelated origins.
RacketeerCoined in 1920s Chicago for organized extortion.