croquet

Everyday

1. A lawn game in which players hit wooden balls with long-handled wooden mallets through small metal hoops stuck in the grass. tree →
2. (verb, rare) To knock another player's ball away by hitting your own ball against it. tree →

In the lessons

Croquet is played in gardens and clubs, especially in the UK, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia, often in summer. In Alice in Wonderland the Queen's croquet game is mad: the balls are live hedgehogs, the mallets are live flamingos and the hoops are soldiers bent over, and the Queen shouts «Off with his head!». Phrases: «a game of croquet», «croquet lawn», «croquet mallet».

Examples

• We played croquet on Grandpa's lawn after lunch. tree →
• Alice's flamingo kept twisting round to look at her instead of hitting the hedgehog. tree →
• Hit the ball through the hoop with the mallet. tree →
• The croquet club meets every Saturday in summer. tree →
• The Queen played croquet with live hedgehogs. tree →
• It is hard to play croquet when the lawn is bumpy. tree →
• The soldiers had to bend over to be the croquet hoops. tree →

Note

Sounds like «CROH-kay»; the t is silent. It is uncountable: «a game of croquet», not «a croquet». Do not mix up with croquette (a fried roll of food) or cricket.