tricky racket

noun

A type of business or endeavor that is not easy; a domain fraught with difficulty.

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Meanings

nountricky racket (plural tricky rackets)

plural tricky rackets

  1. A type of business or endeavor that is not easy; a domain fraught with difficulty.

    "This crimefightin' can be a tricky racket," said the demon.

    2012, Matthew Hughes, Costume Not Included: To Hell and Back
    2 more examples

    The puppet clique's anticommunist tricky racket is an intolerable challenge to the South Korean youths, students, and people desiring independence, democracy, and reunification and is an unbearable provocation against us who are making all efforts to remove the confrontation and mistrust between the North and the South and achieve the fatherland's independent and peaceful reunification.

    1985, Daily Report: Asia & Pacific - Issues 170-179, page 491

    The internet used to be the Wild West. But more and more these days it's getting to be a tricky racket.

    2018, Nicolás Obregón, Sins As Scarlet

Origin

Originally from tricky (“difficult”) + racket (“illegal scheme for profit”). Over time, this expression has lost its implication of illicitness.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with tricky racket

jacketpacketbracketracquetracketplacketrackettred packet
All rhymes →
Cite this entry
APA

tricky racket. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tricky%20racket

MLA

“tricky racket.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tricky%20racket. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tricky racket,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tricky%20racket.

Source: tricky racket on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.