cricket

cricket — noun

1. a sport played on grass between two sides of eleven players each, in which the b

1.nounA2
Definition

a sport played on grass between two sides of eleven players each, in which the batting side uses a flat wooden bat to strike a hard ball and earns points by sprinting back and forth between two clusters of upright poles called wickets

Example

Théo spent every Saturday afternoon playing cricket with his school team.

play + cricket — common verb–noun collocation

The charity cricket match between India and Australia raised a large sum of money.

cricket match + between [teams]

Common collocations
  • play cricket
  • cricket match
  • cricket team
  • cricket bat
  • cricket ball
  • score runs
  • win a match
  • cricket pitch

Usage Note

Cricket matches can last from a few hours (Twenty20 format) to five days (Test matches). The equipment includes a wooden bat, a hard leather ball, and three wooden stumps called a wicket.

Common Mistakes

I play cricket ball.
I play cricket.
'cricket' is the name of the sport, not the ball.
I hit a cricket.
I hit the ball in a cricket match.
the word 'cricket' alone does not refer to the ball.

2. a small leaping insect with a dark body that produces brief chirping sounds, mos

2.nounA2
Definition

a small leaping insect with a dark body that produces brief chirping sounds, most often heard after nightfall, by scraping its front wings together

Example

A cricket in the garden chirped all night and kept Sari awake.

cricket + chirp — the sound a cricket makes

Ayesha heard a cricket rubbing its wings together behind the old wooden cupboard.

rub + wings together — how crickets produce sound

Common collocations
  • cricket chirps
  • hear a cricket
  • cricket sound
  • rub wings together
  • field cricket
Synonyms
  • grasshopper

    a related jumping insect, but grasshoppers are typically larger, greener, and make sound by rubbing legs against wings, not wings together

Usage Note

Only male crickets chirp; they do so by rubbing a ridge on one wing against a row of teeth on the other wing. The chirping rate changes with temperature.

Common Mistakes

Crickets are dangerous insects.
Crickets are harmless insects that do not bite or sting.
crickets are not harmful to humans.
Idioms

not cricket

idiom

behaviour that is unfair, dishonest, or against the accepted standards of honest dealing

Lying about your qualifications on a job application simply is not cricket.

Changing the rules halfway through the competition was felt to be not cricket by most players.

cricket — verb

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Cricket, baseball, and rounders are all bat-and-ball games, but they differ in field shape, equipment, and scoring. In cricket, the field is oval with two sets of wooden stumps (wickets) at the centre; batters defend a wicket and can score runs by running between the two ends. Baseball uses a diamond-shaped field with four bases and a smaller, harder ball; batters run around the bases after hitting. Rounders is a simpler British game with a smaller bat and a softer ball, often played by children in school. 'Sport' is the general category — you could say 'cricket is a sport' but not the reverse. Usage example: 'I love watching cricket, but I find baseball too slow.'

baseball ↗rounderssport ↗

Etymology

Old FrenchMiddle DutchEnglish

The two meanings of 'cricket' arrived in English from different routes. The sporting sense probably comes from the Old French word 'criquet' meaning a kind of club or stick, or from the Middle Dutch 'krick(e)' meaning a stick or staff. The insect sense comes from the Old French 'criquer' meaning 'to creak, rattle, or crackle' — an imitation of the sound the insect makes. The two words happened to end up spelled the same way in English.