cricket

plural crickets · alternative archaic dialectal crecket

1. 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.
   1. UShumorousin pluralslangIn the form crickets: absolute silence; no communication.
2. A signalling device used by soldiers in hostile territory to identify themselves to a friendly in low visibility conditions.
3. slangaeronauticsAn aural warning sound consisting of a continuously-repeating chime, designed to be difficult for pilots to ignore.

1. uncountablehobbiesA game played outdoors with bats and a ball between two teams of eleven, popular in England and many Commonwealth countries.

   Look, that's a lovely sound, isn't it? The bat against the ball. Very English. Oh, yes, long summer afternoons spent in peace and harmony. I always say that, if Jesus had played a sport, I'm sure it would have been cricket.

   1999 September 12, Anthony Horowitz et al., “Dead Man's Eleven”, in Midsomer Murders

2. UKuncountableAn act that is fair and sportsmanlike.

   Robbins went on, "Henry wouldn't do anything that wasn't cricket. Me, I was raised in a river ward and I'm not bothered by niceties. […]

   1954, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, volume 7, page 81

   Antonyms: not cricket

3. uncountableA variant of the game of darts. See Cricket (darts).

present singular third person crickets · participle present cricketing · participle past cricketed · past cricketed

1. intransitiverareTo play the game of cricket.

   Judge: Your family is in destitute circumstances. How do you get your living? Bannerman: By cricketing, your Worship.

   1891 May 27, "A Cricketer in Low Circumstances", The Evening News (Sydney); cited in "What do we know about the first Test cricketer?", ESPNcricinfo, 7 August 2016

plural crickets · alternative crecket · alternative cracket

1. dialectalA wooden footstool.

   Heawe’er I pood o Cricket, on keaw’rt meh deawn ith Nook, o side oth' Hob

   1746, Tim Bobbin, A View of the Lancashire Dialect; by Way of Dialogue, Manchester: Josehp Harrop, pages 31 in the 6th edition 1757, 13–14 in the 1797 edition

2. 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.