rack1

 
Pronunciation: /rak/

noun

  • 1a framework, typically with rails, bars, hooks, or pegs, for holding or storing things: a spice rack a letter rack
  • an overhead shelf on a coach, train, or aircraft for stowing luggage.
  • a stack of digital effects units for a guitar or other instrument.
  • a vertically barred frame for holding animal fodder: a hay rack
  • 2a cogged or toothed bar or rail engaging with a wheel or pinion, or using pegs to adjust the position of something: a steering rack
  • 3 (the rack) historical an instrument of torture consisting of a frame on which the victim was stretched by turning rollers to which the wrists and ankles were tied.
  • 4a triangular structure for positioning the balls in pool.
  • a single game of pool.
  • 5North American informal a woman’s breasts: that chick’s got a nice rack
  • 6North American a set of antlers: moose have the most impressive racks of all the antlered animals
  • 7North American informal a bed.

verb

[with object]
  • 1 (also wrack) cause extreme pain, anguish, or distress to: he was racked with guilt
  • historical torture (someone) on the rack.
  • 2 [with object and adverbial of place] place in or on a rack: the shoes were racked neatly beneath the dresses
  • 3move by a rack and pinion.
  • 4chiefly archaic raise (rent) above a fair or normal amount. See also rack rent.
  • oppress (a tenant) by exacting excessive rent.

Phrases

go to rack (or wrack) and ruin

gradually deteriorate in condition because of neglect; fall into disrepair.
[rack from Old English wræc 'vengeance'; related to wreak]

off the rack

North American term for off the peg (see peg).

on the rack

suffering intense distress or strain.

rack (or wrack) one's brains (or brain)

make a great effort to think of or remember something: Meg racked her brain for inspiration

Phrasal Verbs

rack something up

accumulate or achieve something, typically a score or amount: Japan is racking up record trade surpluses with the United States

Origin:

Middle English: from Middle Dutch rec, Middle Low German rek 'horizontal bar or shelf', probably from recken 'to stretch, reach' (possibly the source of rack1 (sense 1 of the verb))

The relationship between the forms rack and wrack is complicated. The most common noun sense of rack, ‘a framework for holding and storing things’, is always spelled rack, never wrack. In the phrase rack something up the word is also always spelled rack. Figurative senses of the verb, deriving from the type of torture in which someone is stretched on a rack, can, however, be spelled either rack or wrack: thus racked with guilt or wracked with guilt; rack your brains or wrack your brains. In addition, the phrase rack and ruin can also be spelled wrack and ruin.