DictionaryAI

tennis

USTEN-is/ˈtɛnɪs/

Verbtennises, tennising, tennised

5 meanings of tennis

Practice

  1. 1
    noununcountable
    A sport in which two players, or four in doubles, hit a ball back and forth over a net using rackets.

    Tennis demands quick footwork and sharp reflexes.

    He took up tennis in college and still plays competitively on weekends.

    Note

    The name began as a command: Middle English tennys, from Old French tenez, "hold!", the plural imperative of tenir. It is usually uncountable and sits easily before other nouns, as in tennis court, tennis star, or George Goodchild's "tennis bloke" of 1935. The modern sport took over its name from the earlier racket game, which is why the word is older than the game it now chiefly names.

  2. 2
    noundateduncountable
    A match in the sport of tennis.

    After tea there was tennis on the south lawn.

    The colonel proposed tennis before dinner, weather permitting.

    Note

    Here the word counts: a tennis is a single occasion of play, and it can take a plural. Violet Hunt's The Last Ditch (1918) lists "teas and tennises" among the day's parties, which shows the social setting this use belongs to. It is dated now. In current English, say a game of tennis or a tennis match.

  3. 3
    verbdatedintransitive
    To play tennis.

    The guests tennis on the lawn while the others play croquet.

    We tennised all morning, then swam in the lake before lunch.

    Note

    A verb made straight from the noun, and regular in every form: tennises, tennising, tennised. It is intransitive. People tennis, but they do not tennis anything, and that sets it apart from the "bat back and forth" verb. Because it is dated, it reads as period color. In ordinary modern English, play tennis is the safe choice.

  4. 4
    verbtransitive
    To drive something backward and forward, like a tennis ball batted between players.

    Rival newspapers tennised the rumor back and forth for a week.

    Strong currents tennis the small boats between the two piers.

    Similarbat, toss, bounce, volley

    Note

    A figurative verb with a long pedigree. Edmund Spenser, writing in 1596, has pursuers drive an enemy from one side to another and "tennis him" between them, batting a person about like a ball. It always takes a direct object, the thing knocked to and fro, and often pairs with back and forth or between. The plain verb for playing, by contrast, needs no object.

Less common meaning

  1. 5
    nounobsoleteuncountable
    An early ball game played with a racket or an open hand to keep the ball in motion or send it back and forth.

    Henry wagered ten crowns on a game of tennis in the enclosed court.

    The apprentices kept the ball aloft at tennis, striking it with their bare palms.

    Note

    The ball game that carried the name long before the modern sport, played with a racket or the bare palm. Shakespeare's Henry V (1599) already has tennis-balls, and Macaulay's History of England (1849–1861) still counts playing tennis among accomplishments "familiar to all London." For this earlier game the word is obsolete. When you mean it today, name it as the earlier game rather than relying on tennis alone.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of tennis apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

From Middle English tennys (also teneys, tenis), taken from Old French tenez, the second-person plural imperative of tenir, meaning 'to hold'.