The word racket has several meanings:

1. A piece of sports equipment with a handle and a netted frame used to hit a ball. Tennis players swing their rackets to send the ball flying across the net, and badminton players use lighter rackets to hit a shuttlecock back and forth. The strings create a springy surface that helps control where the ball goes.
2. A loud, unpleasant noise. When your neighbor starts mowing the lawn at 7 a.m. on Saturday, that annoying racket might wake you up. If someone tells you to “stop making such a racket,” they want you to quiet down. The word suggests chaotic, bothersome noise rather than pleasant sounds like music.
3. A dishonest scheme to make money, often by tricking or threatening people. A protection racket works like this: criminals tell shop owners to pay them money or “something bad might happen” to their stores. Someone running a racket might also sell fake products or charge outrageous prices for something worthless. When people say “What a racket!” about a business, they mean it seems like a scam designed to unfairly take people's money.