Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. any form of deception, criminal trickery, hoaxing.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 261: racket some particular kinds of fraud and robbery are so termed, when called by their flash titles, and others Rig; as, the Letter-racket, the Order-racket; the Kid-rig; the Cat and Kitten-rig, &c., but all these terms depend upon the fancy of the speaker. In fact, any game may be termed a rig, racket, suit, slum, &c., by prefixing thereto the particular branch of depredation or fraud in question, many examples of which occur in this work.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 224/1: I did wear a shovel hat when the Bishop of London was our racket.
1875		N.Y. Times 18 July 8/1: But house-robbery was’ent their racket, ’cause you see they was pirates.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 24 June 3/2: The benefit racket is being played in Boston this season.
1883		J. Keane On Blue Water 222: We need look for no assistance from our own messmates, but would have to battle the racket on our own hooks.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 119: I’d been wondering how it was they came to [...] find out that Jim and I had a share in the Momberah cattle racket.
1890		Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 21 June 6/2: Blessed is he that liveth rent-free. We have often tried to work that racket, but always got left.
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 133: No tramp, for instance, is so clever at the begging-letter ‘racket’.
1907		C. M’Govern By Bolo and Krag 28: [I was] doing continually the harmless idiot racket to a frazzle.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 13 Mar. 2nd sect. 9/1: They Say [...] That an aristocratically-named bounder attempted to work the press ticket racket last week.
1911		J. Lomax Cowboy Songs 150: Oh, Tom is a big six-footer and thinks he’s mighty fly, / But I can tell you his racket, – he’s a deadbeat on the sly.
1929		W.R. Burnett Little Caesar 22: Why don’t you get into the beer racket? That’s safe.
1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 5: I quit the racket while I had my health and strength.
1947		J. Maclaren-Ross Of Love And Hunger 35: I was working a racket, see? Secondhand cleaners. Bloody supervisor ratted on me.
1950		P. Highsmith Strangers on a Train (1974) 25: I got a few crack-proof rackets doped out.
1957		C. Himes Imabelle 63: Has it ever occurred to you that they might be working a racket.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 64: [as 1957].
1966		J. Holledge Great Aust. Gamble 28: [A] knowledge of the turf, its ramps and its rackets that would make a present-day ‘shrewdie’ look like a Sunday School teacher.
1968		A. Burgess Enderby Outside in Complete Enderby (2002) 304: They bring the stuff up with them for this here racketyboo.
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 51: He will probably run a tiny racket himself.
1983		A-Team Storybook 33: We’re all in the same racket [...] We’re all here to milk the suckers.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 43: He used to run a blackmail racket.
2000		Guardian G2 21 Feb. 10: He believes many asylum seekers are operating a ‘racket’.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] [T]hese bastards were running a racket, and weren’t keen on sharing the action.
2012		W. Keyser ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Racket — Any operation that depends on deception for success.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1928		Phila. Eve. Bulletin 5 Oct. 40/4: Here are a few more terms and definitions from the ‘Racket’ vocabulary: [...] ‘Racket,’ [...] a scheme.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 188: racket boy A petty crook. racket moll A woman criminal. racket pusher A gangster leader. racket work A criminal enterprise.
1951		C. Stoker Thicker ’n Thieves 30: While I came to have a greater understanding of the racket mind, I also came to have a more profound insight into police mentality.
1958		Murtagh & Harris Cast the First Stone 113: Squares couldn’t be expected to understand the motivations of racket broads like her.
1961		L. Block Diet of Treacle (2008) 178: Shank looked for people he knew, racket people, junk people.

3. a theory, an idea.

1883		Bismarck (ND) Trib. 26 Jan. 8/1: The minister preached how vulgar it was to use slang [...] Just the minute I caught on to his racket, it broke me all up.
1885		Maitland Mercury (Aus./NSW) 31 Mar. 2: ‘Inform on you? I see.’ ‘Now you’ve got the racket down fine’.
1907		Times Dispatch (Richmond, VA) 10 Mar. 53/3: That’s the racket this time. Guy the whole League crowd, ‘Silk Stockings vs. Laboring Man.’ That’s the idea.

4. a job, an occupation; not necessarily illegal.

1883		Daily Trib. (Bismarck, ND) 5 Sept. 11/5: ‘How have you enjoyed your trip?’ asked the Tribune reporter of the president [...] ‘Way up! Never tackled a racket in my life that seemed to cotton up the square thing so much as this little off-hand jamboree. Oh! she’s been a daisy; I tell you.’.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 2: And now [...] all that racket’s over.
1899		Crissie 123: ‘The cost of all this bugger’s racket will come out of your salary’.
1900		J. Conrad Lord Jim 119: I had a hard time of it, too, along of that rotten old Patna racket.
1904		C. Connors Bowery Life [ebook] He t'inks he'll cop sum uv de long green wid de grub racket—start restrants, are yer on?
1911		Gem 7 Oct. 8: That’s the racket, sonny.
1916		‘Anzac’ On the Anzac Trail 39: Then there was bomb making and throwing. There is a lot of excitement to be got out of that racket.
1916		J. Buchan Greenmantle (1930) 136: ‘Pretty fit again?’ he asked. ‘Tough as a sjambok. I thrive on the racket.’.
1919		Perrysburg Jrnl (Wood Co., OH) 22 May 2/2: I am just Nuts to tear into the Sweet Home racket with ivy round the door.
1928		W. Winchell Your Broadway & Mine 13 Nov. [synd. col.] [of journalism] ‘I know a lot of big men in your racket [...] maybe i will get you a big job if you need it’.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 537: ‘Say, Lonigan, what’s your racket?’ [...] ‘Painting with my old man.’.
1942		W. Winchell ‘On Broadway’ 12 Apr. [synd. col.] One of the world’s softest rackets is being an Axis propagandist in Tokyo.
1948		C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident 108: Coo, what a racket! he exclaimed [...] You ought to be in Big Business, like me, not this small-time stuff.
1953		J. Thompson Alcoholics (1993) 113: He and his proteges were left with practically a clear field in the consultant racket.
1964		H.S. Thompson letter 21 July in Proud Highway (1997) 461: This writing is a bad racket to fool around with unless you can’t do anything else.
1974		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell Plays Solomon (1976) 25: One of the fringe benefits this racket is supposed to be rich in.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 261: He fantasized a day when he could get out of the referral racket altogether.
1999		Indep. Rev. 10 July 10: Nick is running a racket treating the mental problems of the rich with press-ups and rowing machines.

5. in combs., with a defining n.

1846		Bell’s Life in Sydney 8 Aug. 3/3: Notwithstanding the objections of the Superintendent of Police against the slaughter of vagabond barkers, that the dog racket will be resorted to for replenishing the pockets of the force.
1886–96		Marshall Pomes 82: I’m on the polling-racket [F&H].
1887		Cumberland Mercury (NSW) 5 Nov. 1/7: Charles Jo. was good on the ‘great big’ racket at the Liedertafel Concert. He spoke of a ‘great big’ success; a ‘great big’ social affair, and [...] a ‘great big God’.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 July 15/3: A Brisbane capitalist, [...] who had made his money out of hop-beer, and being a believer in Bellamy, intends to put his workers on the profit-sharing racket soon, offers the local Worker free machine-room and power.
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 162: No side-doors or speakeasy racket stood for.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 10 Sept. 4/7: Perth’s most witty bung goes the whole hog in compelling thirsty travellers to commit wholesale perjury when he admits them to his pub on the bona-fide racket upon the Sabbath, .
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 17 Apr. 3rd sect. 17/3: In Perth recently Dave went the motor-and-oysters racket hot and strong.
1929		A. Capone testimony 29 July to Illinois Association for Criminal Justice et al. Illinois Crime Survey 838: ‘I wasn’t in the beer ‘racket’ and didn’t care where they sold’.
1938		W. Winchell ‘On Broadway’ 11 Mar. [synd. col.] The trouble with our income tax racket is that it will soon be putting taxpayers on relief – instead of taking the unemployed off it.
1940		W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 332: Roy [...] this is the land of milk and honey for the health racket.
1945		J. Fishman Bullets for Two 13: He had ventured from his hideout to engage in the stolen car racket.
1953		K. Tennant Joyful Condemned 43: As he had done so often before, he vowed that the bust racket was a mug’s game and he was off it for keeps.
1957		R. Prather Always Leave ’Em Dying 75: Dr. Wolfe had been Nurse Dixon’s sidekick in the abortion racket.
1965		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 140: She knew the con racket.
2007		C. Goffard Snitch Jacket 17: Wops got the God racket [...] but you stole it from the Heebs.

6. in weak use, any form of activity.

1879		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 11 Oct. 6/4: ‘We [...] kept up the racket until my folks found out and threatened to send me to a convent’.
1881		Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 15 June 2/2: I watched this yere racket to-day, but I wasn’t satisfied [...] The parson cut it fat, but the whole thing was tame business.
1894		Mirror of Life 6 Jan. 4: [pic. caption] On His Muscle. / The Thick Ear Racket Don’t Go.
1904		C. Connors Bowery Life [ebook] [He] tips me off dat he wants ter take me an’ me gal up to er swell dump w’ere dere’s er racket.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 167: I’ve got the clothes that’ll fit into a night racket.
1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 29: I don’t see any kick in this racket [i.e. opium smoking].
1936		‘Josephine Tey’ Shilling for Candles 138: Bart was much better informed where the society racket was concerned.
2014		R.W. Hart ‘How to Make the Perfect New York Bagel’ in ThugLit Jan. [ebook] Sounds quite the racket they had there.

7. a story, a ‘line’.

1879		A. Tourgée A Fool’s Errand 157: I don’t wonder, though, that men who had been in what our modern slang denominates the ’racket’ of the antislavery reform should be tired.
1885		‘High School Sl.’ in N.Y. Dispatch 31 May 7: I dropped to his racket the first time he pulled his handkerchief on me.
1890		Sporting Times 1 Mar. 1/2: One of the combatants was one of those canting, religious hypocrites, that go about on the ‘Where are you bound for, sinner?’ racket.
1901		H. Lawson ‘The Story of “Gentleman-Once”’ in Roderick (1972) 532: I’ve heard Danny on the Gentleman-Once racket before.
1951		J.D. Salinger Catcher in the Rye (1958) 39: What a racket.
1964		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 124: Now that’s your racket every time you come, / you ain’t got nothin’ but you will have some.

8. (US) a plan, a scheme.

1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 7 Jan. 7/1: Greathouse [...] pulled down his gun on Fowler as he rode up, remarking, ‘I know your racket and it won't work’.
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 21 June 2/4: He’s lately struck a new racket, and I’m blessed if I don’t think he’s a-going off his chump.
1908		‘Old Sleuth’ Dock Rats of N.Y. (2006) 103: Well, I reckon I’ve run this racket pretty well.
1928		J.P. McEvoy Showgirl 88: Then here’s the racket. In the first place, I know where Dixie is.

9. (US) an easy job or situation, esp. a sinecure.

1929		J. Lait Broadway Melody 68: Did they slip you the half-a-grand trick? [...] It’s a standard racket. They got eighty-four more if that one don’t click.
1948		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 25 Dec. 6/1: So [...] the Crow got himself a job as a taxi driver, and started collecting currency from the peasants. He did so well at this racket for a while that [etc.].

10. (US) as the rackets, organized crime.

1928		Phila. Eve. Bulletin 5 Oct. 40/4: Here are a few more terms and definitions from the ‘Racket’ vocabulary: [...] ‘Racket,’ [...] the bootleg industry and all its branches.
1931		C.B. Yorke ‘Snowbound’ in Gangster Stories Oct. n.p.: Queen Sue was the toughest moll that ever pulled a gat this side of Hades — she was in the rackets for what she could get out of ’em.
1933		J. Spenser Limey 37: There’s lots o’ his sort graduate into the rackets.
1941		A. Lomax Mister Jelly Roll (1952) 181: He simply could not compete with these Chicago higher-ups in the rackets.
1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 184: You’re in the rackets, aren’t you?
1969		M. Puzo Godfather 128: He’s a war hero and he’s never been mixed up with the rackets.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 44: Red was a drunken lecher, but he did keep his mouth closed and knew criminals outside the rackets.
1985		N. Pileggi Wiseguy (2001) 8: The man who ran most of the rackets in the area.
2011		‘Jack Tunney’ Split Decision [ebook] My days of hand shaking with the rackets were over.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 76: The kosher cowboys in the L.A. rackets. All zany Zionists.

11. (US) the racket, prostitution.

1957		B. Pearce ‘I’m in the Racket’ 🎵 You give me some of yours, I may sell you some of mine / ‘Cause you know I’m in the racket / Yes you know I’m in the racket / [...] [Y]our mama’s in the racket now.
1964		L. Hansberry Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window in Three Negro Plays (1969) III i: How many things could a nice normal healthy American girl kick all at one time – the racket and the pills?

12. (US prison) the world of homosexual relationships.

1958		Murtagh & Harris Cast the First Stone 33: She said the racket ruled at [reform] school and everybody was afraid of her and the other pops [i.e. masculine lesbians].
1967		in S. Harris Hellhole 61: Big Sis [...] came on my cot and touched me. She said, ‘You like this, baby? Well, you better like it because it’s a racket and you got to belong or get hurt.’.