Racking
['rækɪŋ]
Definition
(adj.) causing great physical or mental suffering; 'a wrenching pain' .
Checked by Cecily--From WordNet
Definition
(p. pr. & vb. n.) of Rack
(n.) Spun yarn used in racking ropes.
Edited by Lancelot
Examples
- 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.
Edited by Lancelot