Rack
[ræk]
Definition
(noun.) a rapid gait of a horse in which each foot strikes the ground separately.
(noun.) a form of torture in which pain is inflicted by stretching the body.
(noun.) a support for displaying various articles; 'the newspapers were arranged on a rack'.
(noun.) framework for holding objects.
(noun.) an instrument of torture that stretches or disjoints or mutilates victims.
(noun.) rib section of a forequarter of veal or pork or especially lamb or mutton.
(verb.) torture on the rack.
(verb.) seize together, as of parallel ropes of a tackle in order to prevent running through the block.
(verb.) work on a rack; 'rack leather'.
(verb.) stretch to the limits; 'rack one's brains'.
(verb.) draw off from the lees; 'rack wine'.
(verb.) fly in high wind.
(verb.) put on a rack and pinion; 'rack a camera'.
Editor: Sweeney--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) Same as Arrack.
(n.) The neck and spine of a fore quarter of veal or mutton.
(n.) A wreck; destruction.
(n.) Thin, flying, broken clouds, or any portion of floating vapor in the sky.
(v. i.) To fly, as vapor or broken clouds.
(v.) To amble fast, causing a rocking or swaying motion of the body; to pace; -- said of a horse.
(n.) A fast amble.
(v. t.) To draw off from the lees or sediment, as wine.
(a.) An instrument or frame used for stretching, extending, retaining, or displaying, something.
(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.
(a.) An instrument for bending a bow.
(a.) A grate on which bacon is laid.
(a.) A frame or device of various construction for holding, and preventing the waste of, hay, grain, etc., supplied to beasts.
(a.) A frame on which articles are deposited for keeping or arranged for display; as, a clothes rack; a bottle rack, etc.
(a.) 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.
(a.) A frame or table on which ores are separated or washed.
(a.) A frame fitted to a wagon for carrying hay, straw, or grain on the stalk, or other bulky loads.
(a.) A distaff.
(a.) 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.
(a.) That which is extorted; exaction.
(v. t.) 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.
(v. t.) To torment; to torture; to affect with extreme pain or anguish.
(v. t.) To stretch or strain, in a figurative sense; hence, to harass, or oppress by extortion.
(v. t.) To wash on a rack, as metals or ore.
(v. t.) To bind together, as two ropes, with cross turns of yarn, marline, etc.
Editor: Pratt
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Torture, torment, anguish, agony, pang, extreme pain.[2]. Crib, manger.[3]. Neck (of mutton), crag.[4]. Mist, vapor.[5]. (Naut.) Fairleader.
v. a. [1]. Torture, torment, distress, agonize, excruciate, pain extremely.[2]. Stretch, strain, force, wrest.[3]. Draw off (from sediment).
Editor: Vicky
Synonyms and Antonyms
[See TORTURE]
Checked by Ida
Definition
v.t. to strain or draw off from the lees as wine.—ns. Rack′ing-can a vessel from which wine can be drawn without disturbing the lees; Rack′ing-cock -fau′cet a cock used in drawing off liquour from a cask; Rack′ing-pump a pump for the transfer of liquor to casks.
n. thin or broken clouds drifting across the sky.—v.i. to drift to drive.
n. the gait of a horse between a trot and a gallop.—n. Rack′er a horse that moves in this gait.
n. same as Wrack=Wreck—now used only in the phrases Go to rack Go to rack and ruin.
n. same as Arrack.—Rack punch a punch made with arrack.
n. an instrument for racking or extending: an engine for stretching the body in order to extort a confession hence (fig.) extreme pain anxiety or doubt: a framework on which articles are arranged as hat-rack plate-rack letter-rack &c.: the grating above a manger for hay: (mech.) a straight bar with teeth to work into those of a wheel pinion or endless screw for converting a circular into a rectilinear motion or vice vers: (Scot.) the course in curling.—v.t. to stretch forcibly: to strain: to stretch on the rack or wheel: to torture: to exhaust: to worry agitate: to wrest overstrain: to practise rapacity: to extort: to place in a rack or frame: (naut.) to seize together with cross-turns as two ropes.—n. Rack′er one who tortures.—adj. Rack′ing tormenting.—ns. Rack′-rail a railway having cogs which work into similar cogs on a locomotive; Rack′-rent an annual rent stretched to the utmost value of the thing rented exorbitant rent.—v.t. to subject to such rents.—ns. Rack′-rent′er one who exacts or pays rack-rent; Rack′-stick a stick for stretching a rope; Rack′-tail a bent arm in a repeating clock connected with the striking mechanism; Rack′work a strong bar with cogs to correspond with similar cogs on a wheel which either moves or is moved by the bar.—Live at rack and manger to live sumptuously and wastefully; On the rack stretched upon it: tortured by anxiety; Put to the rack to put to the torture of the rack: to subject to keen suffering.
n. a young rabbit.
n. (prov.) the neck and spine of a fore-quarter of veal or mutton: the neck of mutton or pork.
Edited by Clio
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream of a rack, denotes the uncertainty of the outcome of some engagement which gives you much anxious thought.
Checked by Bianca
Unserious Contents or Definition
n. 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.
Editor: William
Examples
- How little do you know the effect of rack punch! William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- There may be apathetic exhaustion after the rack. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- The diagrams, the violin-case, and the pipe-rack--even the Persian slipper which contained the tobacco--all met my eyes as I glanced round me. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- Waiter, rack punch. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- A quick glance of her practised eye showed her, even through the deep dark shadow, the sculls in a rack against the red-brick garden-wall. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Is your poor brother recovered of his rack-punch? William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- Carefully I picked my way between and over the soldiers until I had gained the rack at the far side of the room. Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Gods of Mars.
- Amelia thinks, and thinks, and racks her brain, to find some means of increasing the small pittance upon which the household is starving. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- The heating element is of the radiant type, made of flat resistance wire wound on mica and placed in a vertical position between the two bread racks. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- The racks without your cages are filled with blades. Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Gods of Mars.
- There were many fishing boats along the quay and nets were spread on racks. Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell To Arms.
- There were racks of rockets standing to be touched off to call for help from the artillery or to signal with if the telephone wires were cut. Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell To Arms.
- I went into one of the racks and undressed. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- Some fearful hours went over me: indescribably was I torn, racked and oppressed in mind. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- The sound by nature undergo these tortures, and are racked, shaken, shattered; their beauty and bloom perish, but life remains untouched. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- He wanted to train me to an elevation I could never reach; it racked me hourly to aspire to the standard he uplifted. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- At the foot of the bed, half sitting, half kneeling, his face buried in the clothes, was a young man, whose frame was racked by his sobs. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- Pasteur was racked with fears alternating w ith hopes, his anxiety growing more intense as the virulence of the inoculations increased. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- It was all over before I arrived; so my curiosity was not so dreadfully racked as _yours_ seems to have been. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
- My own heart was racked by regrets and remorse. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- It is so tormenting, so racking, and it burns away our strength with its flame. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- And presently, Margaret, racking her brain to talk to Fanny, heard her mother and Mrs. Thornton plunge into the interminable subject of servants. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- Racking back coals. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- Every other child must be racking his heart. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
- The divorced mates, Spirit and Substance, were hard to re-unite: they greeted each other, not in an embrace, but a racking sort of struggle. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
Typed by Leigh