wicket
noun/ˈwɪkɪt/ · [ˈwɪkɪt]
Etymology From Middle English wiket, from Anglo-Norman and Old Northern French wiket, from Old East Old Norse víkjask (“to move oneself, move around”), reflexive of víkja, víkva, ýkva (“to yield, turn, move, go”), from Proto-Germanic *wīkwaną (“to yield, bend, turn”). Compare modern French guichet, ultimately from the same Old Norse source.
16 senses
- 1A small door or gate, especially one beside a larger one.
- 2A small window or other opening, sometimes fitted with a grating.
- 3A service window, as in a bank or train station, where a…
- 4a ticket barrier at a rail station, box office at a cinema, etc.
- 5One of the two wooden structures at each end of the…
- 6A dismissal; the act of a batsman getting out.
- 7The job of a wicketkeeper while the team is bowling.
- 8The period during which two batsmen bat together.
- 9The pitch.
- 10The area around the stumps where the batsmen stand.
- 11Any of the small arches through which the balls are driven.
- 12A temporary metal attachment that one attaches one's…
- 13A shelter made from tree boughs, used by lumbermen.
- 14The space between the pillars, in post-and-stall working.
- 15An angle bracket when used in HTML.
- 16A device to measure the height of animals, usually dogs.
A small door or gate, especially one beside a larger one.
- ...and one, a cool, bold fellow, whom I know well, will unlock the town gate, and—for he has various talents—hopes, through his influence with a pretty daughter of one of the wardens, to leave unbarred a certain wicket in the postern on the seaward side.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 25:
- He then pushed on at full speed, and at last got into the village; and just as they were on the point of catching hold of the horse, he sprung in through the farmer's gate, and the man slapt the wicket after him.1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 182:
1 more example
- And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked / Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked; / His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay, […]1906 August, Alfred Noyes, “The Highwayman”, in Poems, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 1, stanza IV, pages 46–47:
A small window or other opening, sometimes fitted with a grating.
- As he did so he heard the shuffle of footsteps entering the chapel and the clicking of the confessional wicket.1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 386
Canada, UK A service window, as in a bank or train station, where a customer conducts transactions with a teller
- Watt climbed the stone steps and stood before the wicket, looking through its bars. He admired the permanent way, stretching away on either hand, in the moonlight, and the starlight, as far as the eye could reach, as far as Watt's eye could have reached, if it had been inside the station.1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC:
a ticket barrier at a rail station, box office at a cinema, etc.
Ball games, Cricket, Games, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports One of the two wooden structures at each end of the pitch, consisting of three vertical stumps and two bails; the target for the bowler, defended by the batsman.
- The umpire placed the wickets 10 minutes before the match started.
Ball games, Cricket, Games, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports A dismissal; the act of a batsman getting out.
- He kept on taking wickets and bowled the opponents team out for 84.
The job of a wicketkeeper while the team is bowling.
- He kept the wicket.
Ball games, Cricket, Games, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports The period during which two batsmen bat together.
Ball games, Cricket, Games, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports The pitch.
Ball games, Cricket, Games, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports The area around the stumps where the batsmen stand.
- The captain told his fast bowler to bowl around the wicket.
Any of the small arches through which the balls are driven.
Hobbies, Lifestyle, Skiing, Snowboarding, Sports A temporary metal attachment that one attaches one's lift-ticket to.
- make kindly welcome whatever forest wanderer happens to enter the wicket of the log hit1873, Andrew Leith Adams, Field and Forest Rambles:
Biology, Medicine, Natural sciences, Pathology, Sciences, Veterinary, Zoology A device to measure the height of animals, usually dogs.
- Derived terms
- around the wicket, fall of wicket, hit wicket, keep wicket, leg before wicket, mid-wicket, on a good wicket, on a losing wicket, over the wicket, round the wicket, single wicket, single wicket cricket, sticky wicket, take a wicket, walking wicket, wicket gate, wicket keeper, wicket-keeping gloves, wicket maiden, wicket taker