wicket

From Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French wiket, from Old Norse (specifically, Old East Norse) víkjas, diminutive of vik. Compare modern French guichet, ultimately from the same Old Norse source.

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɪkɪt/

• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -ɪkɪt

wicket (plural wickets)

1. A small door or gate, especially one associated with a larger one.
2. A small window or other opening, sometimes fitted with a grating.
   • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 386:

     As he did so he heard the shuffle of footsteps entering the chapel and the clicking of the confessional wicket.

3. (Britain) A service window, as in a bank or train station, where a customer conducts transactions with a teller; a ticket barrier at a rail station, box office at a cinema, etc.
4. (cricket) 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.
5. (cricket) A dismissal; the act of a batsman getting out.
6. (cricket) The period during which two batsmen bat together.
7. (cricket) The pitch.
8. (cricket) The area around the stumps where the batsmen stand.
9. (croquet) Any of the small arches through which the balls are driven.
10. (skiing, snowboarding) A temporary metal attachment that one attaches one's lift-ticket to.
11. (US, dialectal) A shelter made from tree boughs, used by lumbermen.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Bartlett to this entry?)

12. (mining) The space between the pillars, in post-and-stall working.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Raymond to this entry?)

13. (Internet, informal) An angle bracket when used in HTML.

• sticky wicket
• wicket gate