In cricket, the set of three sticks (called stumps) with a crosspiece on top that the batter defends; also, to bowl someone out is to get a wicket.
From Old French 'wicket,' meaning a small gate or opening. The word originally referred to the small gate in a larger gate, and cricket players adopted it to describe the three stumps that form the 'target' that bowlers try to hit. The term dates to at least the 16th century in cricket.
Cricket terms like 'wicket,' 'googly,' and 'maiden over' sound like Hogwarts spells, and cricket itself is genuinely old—the word 'wicket' might come from Wiccan (Flemish) 'wicket' (a small door). It's a game where a single word gets borrowed from medieval fortifications!
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