Tennis

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈtÉ›.nɪs/

Origin

Old French tenez, second-person imperative of tenir ("hold").

Full definition of tennis

Noun

1. (sports) A sport played by two players (or four in doubles), who alternately strike the ball over a net using racquets.
• 1935, George Goodchild, Death on the Centre Court Chapter 1, “Anthea hasn't a notion in her head but to vamp a lot of silly mugwumps. She's set her heart on that tennis bloke...whom the papers are making such a fuss about.”
2. (dated) A match in this sport.
• 1918, Violet Hunt, The Last Ditch (page 95)We go about to parties in the daytime as usual, teas and tennises...
3. (obsolete) An earlier game in which a ball is driven to and fro, or kept in motion by striking it with a racquet or with the open hand.
• Thomas Macaulay (1800-1859)His easy bow, his good stories, his style of dancing and playing tennis, ... were familiar to all London.

Derived terms

Related terms

• tennis elbow

Verb

1. (intransitive, dated) To play tennis.
2. (transitive) To drive backward and forward like a tennis ball.

Anagrams

• nestin, sennit, sinnet, tensin