 13 definitions found
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
rack
noun
1: framework for holding objects
2: rib section of a forequarter of veal or pork or especially
lamb or mutton
3: the destruction or collapse of something; "wrack and ruin"
[syn: {wrack}]
4: an instrument of torture that stretches or disjoints or
mutilates victims [syn: {wheel}]
5: a support for displaying various articles; "the newspapers
were arranged on a rack" [syn: {stand}]
6: a rapid gait of a horse in which each foot strikes the
ground separately [syn: {single-foot}]
verb
1: go at a rack; "the horses single-footed" [syn: {single-foot}]
2: stretch to the limits; "rack one's brains"
3: put on a rack and pinion; "rack a camera"
4: obtain by coercion or intimidation; "They extorted money
from the executive by threatening to reveal his past to
the company boss"; "They squeezed money from the owner of
the business by threatening him" [syn: {extort}, {squeeze},
{gouge}, {wring}]
5: run before a gale [syn: {scud}]
6: fly in high wind
7: draw off from the lees; "rack wine"
8: torment emotionally or mentally [syn: {torment}, {torture},
{excruciate}]
9: work on a rack; "rack leather"
10: seize together, as of parallel ropes of a tackle in order to
prevent running through the block
11: torture on the rack
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Rack \Rack\, verb (used without an object) [imp. & p. p. {Racked} (r[a^]kt); p. pr. &
vb. n. {Racking}.] [See {Rack} that which stretches, or
{Rock}, v.]
To amble fast, causing a rocking or swaying motion of the
body; to pace; -- said of a horse. --Fuller.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Rack \Rack\, noun
A fast amble.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Rack \Rack\, verb (used with an object) [Cf. OF. vin raqu['e] wine squeezed from the
dregs of the grapes.]
To draw off from the lees or sediment, as wine.
It is in common practice to draw wine or beer from the
lees (which we call racking), whereby it will clarify
much the sooner. --Bacon.
{Rack vintage}, wine cleansed and drawn from the lees.
--Cowell.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Rack \Rack\ (r[a^]k), noun
Same as {Arrack}.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Rack \Rack\, noun [AS. hracca neck, hinder part of the head; cf.
AS. hraca throat, G. rachen throat, E. retch.]
The neck and spine of a fore quarter of veal or mutton.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Rack \Rack\, noun [See {Wreck}.]
A wreck; destruction. [Obs., except in a few phrases.]
{Rack and ruin}, destruction; utter ruin. [Colloq.]
{To go to rack}, to perish; to be destroyed. [Colloq.] ''All
goes to rack.'' --Pepys.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Rack \Rack\, noun [Prob. fr. Icel. rek drift, motion, and akin to
reka to drive, and E. wrack, wreck. [root]282.]
Thin, flying, broken clouds, or any portion of floating vapor
in the sky. --Shak.
The winds in the upper region, which move the clouds
above, which we call the rack, . . . pass without
noise. --Bacon.
And the night rack came rolling up. --C. Kingsley.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Rack \Rack\, verb (used without an object)
To fly, as vapor or broken clouds.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Rack \Rack\, noun [Probably fr. D. rek, rekbank, a rack, rekken to
stretch; akin to G. reck, reckbank, a rack, recken to
stretch, Dan. r[ae]kke, Sw. r["a]cka, Icel. rekja to spread
out, Goth. refrakjan to stretch out; cf. L. porrigere, Gr.
'ore'gein. [root]115. Cf. {Right}, adjective, {Ratch}.]
1. An instrument or frame used for stretching, extending,
retaining, or displaying, something. Specifically:
(a) An engine of torture, consisting of a large frame,
upon which the body was gradually stretched until,
sometimes, the joints were dislocated; -- formerly
used judicially for extorting confessions from
criminals or suspected persons.
During the troubles of the fifteenth century, a
rack was introduced into the Tower, and was
occasionally used under the plea of political
necessity. --Macaulay.
(b) An instrument for bending a bow.
(c) A grate on which bacon is laid.
(d) A frame or device of various construction for holding,
and preventing the waste of, hay, grain, etc.,
supplied to beasts.
(e) A frame on which articles are deposited for keeping or
arranged for display; as, a clothes rack; a bottle
rack, etc.
(f) (Naut.) A piece or frame of wood, having several
sheaves, through which the running rigging passes; --
called also {rack block}. Also, a frame to hold shot.
(g) (Mining) A frame or table on which ores are separated
or washed.
(h) A frame fitted to a wagon for carrying hay, straw, or
grain on the stalk, or other bulky loads.
(i) A distaff.
2. (Mech.) A bar with teeth on its face, or edge, to work
with those of a wheel, pinion, or worm, which is to drive
it or be driven by it.
3. That which is extorted; exaction. [Obs.] --Sir E. Sandys.
{Mangle rack}. (Mach.) See under {Mangle}. n.
{Rack block}. (Naut.) See def. 1
(f), above.
{Rack lashing}, a lashing or binding where the rope is
tightened, and held tight by the use of a small stick of
wood twisted around.
{Rack rail} (Railroads), a toothed rack, laid as a rail, to
afford a hold for teeth on the driving wheel of a
locomotive for climbing steep gradients, as in ascending a
mountain.
{Rack saw}, a saw having wide teeth.
{Rack stick}, the stick used in a rack lashing.
{To be on the rack}, to suffer torture, physical or mental.
{To live at rack and manger}, to live on the best at
another's expense. [Colloq.]
{To put to the rack}, to subject to torture; to torment.
A fit of the stone puts a king to the rack, and
makes him as miserable as it does the meanest
subject. --Sir W.
Temple.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Rack \Rack\ (r[a^]k), verb (used with an object)
1. To extend by the application of force; to stretch or
strain; specifically, to stretch on the rack or wheel; to
torture by an engine which strains the limbs and pulls the
joints.
He was racked and miserably tormented. --Foxe.
2. To torment; to torture; to affect with extreme pain or
anguish.
Vaunting aloud but racked with deep despair.
--Milton.
3. To stretch or strain, in a figurative sense; hence, to
harass, or oppress by extortion.
The landlords there shamefully rack their tenants.
--Spenser.
They [landlords] rack their rents an ace too high.
--Gascoigne.
Grant that I may never rack a Scripture simile
beyond the true intent thereof. --Fuller.
Try what my credit can in Venice do;
That shall be racked even to the uttermost. --Shak.
4. (Mining) To wash on a rack, as metals or ore.
5. (Naut.) To bind together, as two ropes, with cross turns
of yarn, marline, etc.
{To rack one's brains} or {To rack one's brains out} or {To
rack one's wits}, to exert one's thinking processes to the
utmost for the purpose of accomplishing something; as, I
racked my brains out trying to find a way to solve the
problem.
[1913 Webster +PJC]
Syn: To torture; torment; rend; tear.
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
357 Moby Thesaurus words for "rack":
Chateaubriand, Hydromatic, Procrustean bed, adversity, afflict,
affliction, agonize, agony, ail, amble, andante, anguish, archives,
armory, arsenal, atrocious pain, attic, automatic transmission,
bank, barge, basement, batter, bay, beat, bed of Procrustes,
beleaguer, bin, bite, blade roast, bloody, bonded warehouse,
bookcase, boot, bowl along, box, breast, brisket, bundle, bunker,
burn, buttery, cargo dock, cellar, chafe, chest, chuck,
chuck roast, claudication, claw, clawing, clod, closet, clump,
cogwheel, cold cuts, confinement, conservatory, convulse, crate,
crawl, creep, crib, cruciation, crucifixion, crucify, cupboard,
cut, damage, dead march, depository, depot, differential,
differential gear, dismember, dismemberment, distress, dock,
dogtrot, drag, draw and quarter, drawer, droop, dump, estrapade,
exchequer, excruciate, excruciation, fester, filet mignon, flank,
flounce, foot, footpace, footslog, frame, framework, freewheel,
fret, funeral march, gait, gall, galleys, gallop, gear, gear train,
gearbox, gearing, gearshift, gearwheel, give pain, glory hole,
gnaw, godown, grate, grill, grind, gripe, halt, harass, hard labor,
harrow, haul, heave, hell, hell upon earth, high, hippety-hop,
hitch, hobble, hold, holder, holocaust, hop, horror, hurt, hutch,
impale, impalement, imprisonment, incarceration, inflame,
inflict pain, intermediate, iron heel, irritate, jailing, jog,
jog trot, jolt, jump, keelhaul, keelhauling, kill by inches,
knuckle, lacerate, laceration, lancinate, lancination,
leisurely gait, library, limp, lock step, locker, loin, low,
lumber, lumber room, lumbering pace, lumberyard, lunge, lurch,
macerate, magasin, magazine, martyr, martyrdom, martyrization,
martyrize, mince, mincing steps, misery, neutral, nightmare, nip,
oppress, overdrive, overexert, overexertion, overextend,
overextension, overstrain, overstress, overtax, overtaxing, pace,
paddle, pain, passion, peg, penal servitude, persecute,
persecution, piaffe, piaffer, picket, picketing, pierce, pinch,
plague, plate, plate piece, plod, pot roast, prance, press, prick,
prolong the agony, pull, punish, purgatory, put to torture,
railriding, rankle, rasp, repertory, repository, reservoir,
reverse, rib roast, ribs, rick, rip, roast, rock pile, roll,
rolled roast, round, rub, rump, rump roast, saddle, sashay,
saunter, savage, scaffold, scaffolding, scarify, scarpines,
scourge, screw, scuff, scuffle, scuttle, shake, shamble, shank,
shelf, short ribs, shoulder, shoulder clod, shuffle, sidle,
single-foot, sirloin, skip, slink, slither, slog, slouch,
slow march, slow motion, slowness, stab, stack, stack room,
stagger, stalk, stamp, stand, standard transmission, step,
stick shift, sting, stock room, stomp, storage, store, storehouse,
storeroom, straddle, straggle, strain, strain every nerve,
straining, strappado, stress, stress and strain, stressfulness,
stretch, stretcher, stride, stroll, strolling gait, structure,
strut, stump, suffering, supply base, supply depot, support,
swagger, sweat blood, swing, synchromesh, tank, tar and feather,
tar-and-feathering, tax, taxing, tenderloin, tense, tension,
the gantlet, thumbscrew, tittup, toddle, torment, torture, totter,
traipse, transmission, tread, treasure house, treasure room,
treasury, trestle, trip, trot, trudge, try, tug, tweak, twist, vat,
vault, velocity, waddle, walk, wamble, warehouse, wheel, wiggle,
wine cellar, wobble, wound, wrench, wring
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
RACK, noun An argumentative implement formerly much used in persuading
devotees of a false faith to embrace the living truth. As a call to
the unconverted the rack never had any particular efficacy, and is now
held in light popular esteem.
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