tennis
nounverbcommon in dialogue
- United States//ˈtɛnɪs//
- Australia//ˈtenɪs//
A sport played by two players (or four in doubles), who alternately strike the ball over a net using racquets.
noun
- 1
A sport played by two players (or four in doubles), who alternately strike the ball over a net using racquets.
“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.”
One of Naomi Osaka's sponsors has been forced to apologise after depicting the Japanese tennis star, who is half-Haitian, with pale skin in an advertisement.
- 2
datedA match in this sport.
We go about to parties in the daytime as usual, teas and tennises[…]
- 3
obsoleteAn 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.
tennis-balls
His easy bow, his good stories, his style of dancing and playing tennis, […] were familiar to all London.
Etymology
From Middle English tennys, teneys, tenis, from Old French tenez (second-person plural imperative of tenir (“to hold”)).
verb
- 1
datedTo play tennis.
- 2
To drive backward and forward like a tennis ball.
they shall have Intelligence or Espial upon the Enemy, will so drive him from one side to another, and tennis him amongst them
Forms
- plural
- tennises
- past tense
- tennised
- past participle
- tennised
- present participle
- tennising
- third person singular
- tennises
tennis · A sport played by two players (or four in doubles), who alternately strike the ball over a net using racquets.
Tennis · An unincorporated community in Finney County, Kansas, United…Tennyson · An English patronymic surname.tens · An inexact quantity or number, typically understood to be…