[Supposed to be a. North Fr. croquet, dial. form of crochet, dim. of croc, croche crook, found in ONF. in sense of ‘shepherd’s crook’ (Du Cange s.v. crochetum, Littré and Hatzfeld s.v. Crochet); and used in some modern F. dialects in sense of ‘hockey-stick.’
Authorities for this use of croquet in Brittany are given by Dr. Prior Notes on Croquet (1872), 51/2. In The Reader of 29 Oct. 1864, F. J. Foot, of the Geological Survey, stated that the game had been played under this name (though this is perhaps doubtful) near Dublin in 1834–5: see also quot. 1877. From Ireland the game and name were introduced into England in 1852, where between 1858 and 1872 Croquet attained great popularity.]
1. A game played upon a lawn, in which wooden balls are driven by means of wooden mallets through iron arches or ‘hoops’ fixed in the ground in a particular order.
It resembles more or less the ancient game of CLOSH, and the more recent one of PALL-MALL, in both of which a ball had to be driven through an arch or hoop, in the former by a spade-shaped beytel, in the latter by a mallet.
1858. Field, 10 July, 33/3. There is no game which has made such rapid strides in this county [Co. Meath] within a few years as croquet. Ibid., 27 Nov., 437/2. The game [croquet] … was introduced into the North of Ireland some twelve years ago from a French convent.
1862. Trollope, Small Ho. Allington, ii. ‘I haven’t had a game of croquet yet,’ said Mr. Crosbie.
1864. Daily Tel., 4 June, 3/3. Croquet, a fashionable game everywhere, is adopted permanently at Cambridge.
1877. Encycl. Brit., VI. 608. Mr. Dickson, an ivory turner of Gracechurch Street, London, remembers having made a set of croquet implements for Ireland over 40 years ago.
2. The action of croqueting a ball in the game of croquet (see CROQUET v.).
1874. J. D. Heath, Croquet-Player, 8. This hitting of one ball by another … [and] the consequent ‘croquet,’ in which the two balls are placed together, and struck so as to move them both. Ibid., 14. To croquet, or take croquet.
3. attrib. and Comb., as croquet-ground, -hoop, -mallet, -match, -player, etc.
1868. Dilke, Greater Brit., II. 246. Few with flat ground enough for more than … a quarter of a croquet-ground.
1879. ‘E. Garrett’ (Mrs. Mayo), House by Works, I. 128. To put in an appearance at the Pride’s next croquet match.
