cricket

Etymology 1

From Middle English creket, crykett, crykette, from Old French criket (with diminutive -et) from criquer (“to make a cracking sound; creak”), from Middle Dutch kricken (“to creak; crack”), from Proto-West Germanic *krakōn, from Proto-Germanic *krakōną, related to Middle English creken, criken (“to creak”), all ultimately of imitative origin. Compare Dutch kriek (“cricket”), Middle Dutch krikel, criekel, crekel (“cricket”) (with diminituve -el), Middle Low German krikel, krekel (“cricket”), German Kreckel (“cricket”). More at creak.

noun

1. An insect in the order Orthoptera, especially family Gryllidae, that makes a chirping sound by rubbing its wing casings against combs on its hind legs.
   1. (US, slang, humorous, in the plural) In the form crickets: absolute silence; no communication.
2. A signalling device used by soldiers in hostile territory to identify themselves to a friendly in low visibility conditions.
3. A relatively small area of a roof constructed to divert water from a horizontal intersection of the roof with a chimney, wall, expansion joint, or other projection.
4. (aviation, slang) An aural warning sound consisting of a continuously-repeating chime, designed to be difficult for pilots to ignore.

Etymology 2

Perhaps from a Flemish dialect of Dutch met de krik ketsen (“to chase a ball with a curved stick”).

noun

1. (sports) A game played outdoors with bats and a ball between two teams of eleven, popular in England and many Commonwealth countries.
2. (chiefly Britain, usually in negative constructions) An act that is fair and sportsmanlike.
   Robbins went on, "Henry wouldn't do anything that wasn't cricket. Me, I was raised in a river ward and I'm not bothered by niceties. […] 1954, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, volume 7, page 81
3. A variant of the game of darts. See Cricket (darts).

verb

1. (rare, intransitive) To play the game of cricket.
   Judge: Your family is in destitute circumstances. How do you get your living? Bannerman: By cricketing, your Worship. 1891 May 27, "A Cricketer in Low Circumstances", The Evening News (Sydney); cited in "What do we know about the first Test cricketer?", ESPNcricinfo, 7 August 2016

Etymology 3

The etymology is unknown. A few similar words exist in Germanic languages, such as Norwegian krakk (“stool”).

noun

1. (dialectal) A wooden footstool.
   Heawe’er I pood o Cricket, on keaw’rt meh deawn ith Nook, o side oth' Hob 1746, Tim Bobbin, A View of the Lancashire Dialect; by Way of Dialogue, Manchester: Josehp Harrop, pages 31 in the 6th edition 1757, 13–14 in the 1797 edition