rack

      See also Rack, and Räck

      English

      Wikipedia has an article on:

      Wikipedia

      Pronunciation

      Etymology 1

      See Dutch rekken

      Noun

      rack (plural racks)

      1. A series of one or more shelves, stacked one above the other
      2. A frame on which to hang various items.
      3. A device used to torture victims by stretching them beyond their natural limits.
      4. A pair of antlers (as on deer, moose or elk).
      5. A cut of meat involving several adjacent ribs
        I bought a rack of lamb at the butcher's yesterday.
      6. (billiards, snooker, pool) A hollow triangle used for aligning the balls at the start of a game.
        See [1]
      7. (slang) A woman's breasts.
        You should see her rack. Her tits are amazing, and so are her mother's!
      8. (climbing, caving) A friction device for abseiling, consisting of a frame with 5 or more metal bars, around which the rope is threaded. Also rappel rack, abseil rack.
      9. (climbing, slang) A climber's set of equipment for setting up protection and belays, consisting of runners, slings, karabiners, nuts, Friends, etc.
        I used almost a full rack on the second pitch.
      Derived terms
      Translations
      series of shelves
      torture device
      frame for hanging objects
      cut of meat
      woman's breasts

      Verb

      rack (third-person singular simple present racks, present participle racking, simple past and past participle racked)

      1. To place in or hang on a rack.
      2. To torture (someone) on the rack.
        • Alexander Pope
          He was racked and miserably tormented.
        • 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin 2012, p. 228:
          As the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt later recalled, his father, Henry VII's jewel-house keeper Henry Wyatt, had been racked on the orders of Richard III, who had sat there and watched.
      3. To cause (someone) to suffer pain.
        • Milton
          Vaunting aloud but racked with deep despair.
      4. (figuratively) To stretch or strain; to harass, or oppress by extortion.
        • Shakespeare
          Try what my credit can in Venice do; / That shall be racked even to the uttermost.
        • Spenser
          The landlords there shamefully rack their tenants.
        • Fuller
          They rack a Scripture simile beyond the true intent thereof.
      5. (billiards, snooker, pool) To put the balls into the triangular rack and set them in place on the table.
      6. (slang) To strike a male in the groin with the knee.
      7. To (manually) load (a round of ammunition) from the magazine or belt into firing position in an automatic or semiautomatic firearm.
      8. (mining) To wash (metals, ore, etc.) on a rack.
      9. (nautical) To bind together, as two ropes, with cross turns of yarn, marline, etc.
      Translations
      to place or hang on a rack
      billiards, snooker, pool: to place the balls in a triangular rack on the table
      slang: to strike a male in the groin with the knee

      Etymology 2

      Old English reċċan (“to stretch out, extend”)

      Verb

      rack (third-person singular simple present racks, present participle racking, simple past and past participle racked)

      1. stretch joints of a person
      Derived terms
      Translations
      stretch joints of a person

      Etymology 3

      Probably from Old Norse reka (“to be drifted, tost”)[1]

      Verb

      rack (third-person singular simple present racks, present participle racking, simple past and past participle racked)

      1. To fly, as vapour or broken clouds
      Translations
      To fly, as vapour or broken clouds

      Noun

      rack (uncountable)

      1. Thin, flying, broken clouds, or any portion of floating vapour in the sky.
        (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)
        • Francis Bacon
          The winds in the upper region, which move the clouds above, which we call the rack, […] pass without noise.
        • Charles Kingsley
          And the night rack came rolling up.

      Etymology 4

      Middle English rakken

      Verb

      rack (third-person singular simple present racks, present participle racking, simple past and past participle racked)

      1. (brewing) To clarify, and thereby deter further fermentation of, beer, wine or cider by draining or siphoning it from the dregs.
      Translations
      brewing: to clarify by draining or siphoning from the dregs

      References

      1. ^ rack in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

      Anagrams

      ↑Jump back a section
      Last modified on 18 June 2013, at 19:47