ricket

From a dialectal past participle of rick (“to rattle, jiggle, make a noise”), equivalent to rick +‎ -et.

ricket (comparative more ricket, superlative most ricket)

1. (dialectal, obsolete) Unsteady, rickety.

Uncertain. Perhaps an alteration of racket, influenced by Etymology 1 above, or perhaps related to Norwegian Nynorsk rikta (“to make a noise, creak”).

ricket (third-person singular simple present rickets, present participle ricketing, simple past and past participle ricketed)

1. (transitive) To move rapidly and uncertainly, often in a noisy, clamorous, or reckless manner.
   • 1953, Isaac Asimov, The Caves of Steel:

     As it stands now, Earth's own structure must go ricketing down in the near future, the Outer Worlds will slowly degenerate and decay in a somewhat further future, but the new colonies will be a new and healthy strain, combining the best of both cultures.

   • a. 1940, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, The Homes of the Stars:

     Suddenly he went ricketing down the street, beads of gin breaking out profusely on his forehead. He had left his car beside Gus Venske's umbrella. And now he remembered another recognizing clue and hoped that Ronald Colman didn't know his last name.

ricket (plural rickets)

1. (dialectal, obsolete) A racket or disturbance.
2. (dialectal, obsolete) A policeman's rattle.
3. (dialectal) An error; a mistake.
   • 1964, John Gosling, Dennis Craig, The Great Train Robbery‎^[1], page 42:

     Superintendent Butler said that after he had been questioned at Cannon Row police station Wilson said, "You obviously know a lot. I've made a ricket somewhere. I'll have to take my chance. I don't see how you can make it stick without the poppy—and you won't find that."

   • 1996, Jason Tomas, White Heat: The Leeds United Dream Team‎^[2], →ISBN, page 163:

     You could get really neurotic if you listened to everything that people say about you when you concede a goal. I know when I've had a bad game, when I have dropped a ricket.

   • 2017, Justyn Barnes, Aubrey Day, The Random History of Football‎^[3], →ISBN, page 109:

     Instant replays highlighted the glaring error, but none of the five officials on the pitch were actually allowed to use video evidence to see what a ricket they'd made of it.

• rickets
• rickety