a lightweight bat consisting of a netting stretched across in an open frame with a handle attached, used in tennis, squash, badminton, etc and similar games
(in pl, but treated as sing.) a game similar to squash for two or four players, played with a hard ball and rackets on a four-walled court
NAmer a snowshoe shaped like a racket
[early French raquette via Italian racchetta from Arabic rāḥah palm of the hand]