rack

RAK/ɹæk/

Pluralracks

Verbracks, racking, racked

38 meanings of rack

Practice

1
nouncountable
A framework of bars, rails, pegs, or shelves used to hold, hang, store, display, or carry things, such as a wine rack, roof rack, or oven rack.
Bottles of wine lay on their sides in a tall wooden rack.
Each rack in the warehouse holds pallets on five levels.
UsageThings go on or in a rack, and compounds are common: bike rack, coat rack, roof rack.
Similarstand, frame, holder
2
rib cutnouncountable
A cut of meat made up of several adjacent ribs.
The chef seared the rack of venison and sliced it into thick chops at the table.
She brushed barbecue sauce over the rack and slid it back onto the grill.
UsageUsually a rack of lamb, pork or ribs.
3
cause sufferingverbtransitive
To cause someone to suffer pain or torment.
Doubts rack him whenever he has to make a big decision.
She was racked with guilt for years after the accident.
UsageMostly passive with with or by: racked with guilt, racked by coughing.
Similartorment, torture, afflict, agonize, hurt
Note
Milton's Satan, in Paradise Lost (1667), is "vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair", the outward boast and the inner torment set side by side. The verb is most often passive and takes with, as in racked with pain, racked with guilt or racked with doubt.
4
nouncountable
A straight bar with teeth along one edge that mesh with a gearwheel or pinion, or that engage a pawl so movement is possible in one direction only.
On the steepest section the locomotive engages a central rack laid between the rails.
Turning the steering wheel spins a pinion that slides the rack from side to side.
Note
A rack and its pinion turn rotation into straight-line motion or back again; rack-and-pinion steering is the everyday case. Mountain railways lay a rack between the rails so a toothed wheel can climb grades too steep for ordinary adhesion: on the Furka-Oberalp line it handles gradients of about 1 in 9, and in the Bernese Oberland the ladder-type Riggenbach rack is used.
5
verbfigurativelytransitive
To stretch or strain something, or to harass or oppress people by extortion.
Absentee landlords racked their tenants with ever higher rents.
There is no point trying to rack your brain for a password you never wrote down.
UsageMost common today in rack your brain, meaning think very hard.
Similarstrain, stretch, squeeze, oppress
Note
The stretching here is figurative, and it runs three ways: credit strained to its limit, tenants squeezed for rent, a text pulled past its meaning. Shakespeare's Antonio offers credit that "shall be racked even to the uttermost", Edmund Spenser's Irenius complains that landlords in Ireland "use most shamefully to rack their tenants", and Thomas Fuller prays never to rack a Scripture simile beyond its true intent.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
Shakespeare's Antonio offers to stretch his credit to the utmost, using the quoted words. folger.edu
The speaker is Irenius in Spenser's A View of the present State of Ireland. The wording is “use most shamefully to racke theire tenants”, or “use most shamefully to rack their tenants” in modern spelling. celt.ucc.ie
Thomas Fuller prays not to stretch a scriptural simile beyond its intended meaning. en.wiktionary.org
6
place on frameverbtransitive
To place something in a rack or hang it on one.
Rack the weights when you're finished so the next person can use the bench.
The baker racked the fresh loaves by the window to cool.
7
torture devicenounhistoricalcountable
A torture device, worked by a ratchet, that stretched a victim's body beyond its natural limits.
The jailers threatened him with the rack, and he signed the confession that night.
Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack, / Where men enforced do speak anything.
c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”
UsageUsually the rack: put on the rack. On the rack can also mean under great strain.
Note
The machine belongs to history, but its picture of a body pulled past its limits lives on in the verb of pain and the verb of straining. Confessions made on it were doubted even in its own day: Shakespeare's Portia fears Bassanio speaks upon the rack, "where men enforced do speak anything." Macaulay dates its arrival in the Tower to the troubles of the fifteenth century.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
The rack was historically used to torture victims by stretching their bodies. hrp.org.uk
The reliability of statements extracted on the rack was questioned while it was still in use, as illustrated by Portia's words. gutenberg.org
Portia, a character in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, addresses Bassanio and speaks the quoted words. gutenberg.org
Macaulay places the introduction of a rack into the Tower during the troubles of the fifteenth century. gutenberg.org
8
breastsnounslangvulgarcountable
A woman's breasts.
The comedian's tired jokes about his co-star's rack drew more groans than laughs.
She told him, quite firmly, that her rack was none of his business.
UsageComments such as a nice rack can sound sexist or objectifying.
Similarbust, chest, boobs
9
clear wineverbtransitive
To siphon or drain beer, wine, or cider off its dregs, clearing it and discouraging further fermentation.
Winemakers often rack the wine several times during its first year in barrel.
Once fermentation slowed, the brewer racked the beer off the yeast into a second vessel.
Similarsiphon, decant
Note
What stays behind matters here: the lees, the sediment of spent yeast and solids, are left in the old vessel while the clear drink is drawn off by gravity or siphon. Francis Bacon already describes drawing wine or beer from the lees, "which we call racking", and notes that it clarifies much the sooner. The verb often takes off or into: rack the beer off the yeast, into a cask.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
Lees consist of sediment containing spent yeast and other solids. en.wikipedia.org
Racking transfers the drink by gravity or siphon, leaving sediment behind. en.wikipedia.org
Francis Bacon describes drawing wine or beer from the lees, calls it racking, and says it hastens clarification. en.wiktionary.org

Less common meanings

10
antlersnouncountable
The full set of antlers carried by a deer, moose, elk, or similar animal.
The bull elk lowered his rack and charged at his rival.
A ten-point rack hung above the fireplace in the hunting lodge.
Similarantlers
11
pool trianglenouncountable
In billiards and snooker, a hollow triangular frame used to set the balls in position at the start of a game.
Pack the balls tightly against the front of the rack before you lift it away.
Before each game, he rolled the balls into the rack and lifted it off carefully.
Similartriangle
12
set up (pool)verbtransitive or intransitive
To gather the balls in the triangular rack and set them in position on the table.
You won the last game, so it's my turn to rack.
She racked the balls tight and stepped back for her opponent to break.
UsageUsed alone or with the balls: whose turn to rack, rack the balls. Rack up works the same way.
13
verbtransitive
To torture someone on the rack, a frame that stretches the body.
The prisoner was racked twice but still refused to name his accomplices.
His interrogators warned that they would rack him if he did not confess by morning.
Similartorture
Note
Behind the verb stands Old English reċċan, "to stretch out", which is exactly what the machine did. It is usually passive, since the history is told from the victim's side: John Foxe's Actes and Monuments has a prisoner who "was racked and miserably tormented", and Thomas Penn's Winter King records that Henry Wyatt was racked on the orders of Richard III.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
The verb derives from Old English reċċan, meaning “to stretch out”. en.wiktionary.org
The rack stretched the victim's body. dia.pitts.emory.edu
John Foxe's Actes and Monuments describes a prisoner as having been “racked and miserably tormented”. onthewing.org
Thomas Penn's Winter King records that Henry Wyatt was racked on Richard III's orders. en.wiktionary.org
14
thousand dollarsnounslangcountable
A thousand dollars, especially money gained from a crime.
The dealer flashed a rack he had made selling stolen phones.
After the robbery, each of them walked away with twenty racks.
UsageTakes a plural s, unlike grand: twenty racks.
Similargrand, stack
Note
Street slang counts money in racks, and the word often hints that the cash did not come honestly. It usually comes with a number, so ten racks means ten thousand dollars, much as grand does in more ordinary speech.
15
load a gunverbtransitive
To load a round by hand from the magazine or belt into the firing position of an automatic or semiautomatic firearm, or to work a shotgun's slide to chamber the next round.
She racked a round into the chamber and checked that the safety was on.
Instructors teach students to rack the slide firmly so the round seats properly.
Similarchamber, cycle
Note
The object can be the round or the part that moves it: you rack a round into the chamber, or rack the slide of a pistol or the fore-end of a pump shotgun. The motion feeds a fresh cartridge from the magazine into the chamber, so racking a gun that already has a round chambered throws out the round that was there.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Operating the pistol slide strips a cartridge from the magazine and chambers it. ruger.com
Racking ejects a round already in the chamber. A gun can contain a loaded magazine while its chamber is empty; racking then chambers a round without ejecting one. ruger.com
16
chip traynouncountable
A plastic tray for holding and carrying gambling chips.
After a lucky night at the poker table, she cashed out two full racks of chips.
The pit boss brought a fresh rack to the table when the dealer ran low.
Similartray
17
bunknounslangcountable
A bunk, especially one aboard a ship.
He stowed his sea bag under the rack and pulled the curtain shut.
Recruits who failed to make their racks properly got extra duty.
UsageHit the rack means go to bed; you make your rack for inspection.
Similarbunk, berth, bed
Note
Sailors and Marines sleep in racks, and the word carries their routines with it: you make your rack for inspection, get ordered out of it, and sit on it to pull off your boots. The bunk also lent its name to rack as sleep, and hit the rack means going to bed.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
The sleep sense developed by extension from the bunk sense. en.wiktionary.org
18
sleepnounslanguncountable
Sleep; time spent sleeping.
After a double watch, all she wanted was a few hours of rack.
The recruits grabbed whatever rack they could between drills.
UsageUsed with some or hours of: get some rack, a few hours of rack.
Similarsleep, shuteye, kip
Note
Like the bunk it comes from, it began aboard ship, yet it travels: in the film Avatar (2009) Jake Sully pleads that he really needs to get some rack.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Avatar was released in 2009. en.wikipedia.org
Jake Sully says that he really needs to get some rack in Avatar. en.wiktionary.org
19
verbtransitive
To steal something, especially to shoplift goods from a store.
Somebody racked the tip jar while the barista's back was turned.
He'd rack anything left unattended, from phone chargers to lunches in the office fridge.
Similarsteal, pinch, swipe, nick, lift
20
verbslangtransitive
To strike someone in the testicles.
The catcher got racked by a foul tip and stayed down for a full minute.
A stray soccer ball can rack you before you even see it coming.
21
nounobsolete
Destruction, or the condition of something that has been wrecked and brought to ruin.
Years of neglect had let the old mill go to rack and ruin.
The town's slow slide into rack and ruin began the year the mine closed.
UsageToday almost always in rack and ruin: go to rack and ruin.
Note
Despite the look, this sense belongs with wreck, not with the torture device, a separate word that only shares its spelling. Samuel Pepys could still write in 1665 that all goes to rack. On its own the noun is now obsolete. A modern writer keeps it inside the pairing rack and ruin, where wreck's old meaning of destruction quietly survives.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
Rack meaning destruction belongs with wreck and has a different etymology from the torture-device noun. en.wiktionary.org
Samuel Pepys wrote “all goes to rack” in his diary in 1665. gutenberg.org
Rack and ruin preserves the destruction sense through its relationship with wrack and ruin. en.wiktionary.org
22
nounslang
A climber's full set of gear for placing protection and setting up belays, such as slings, carabiners, and nuts.
23
noun
A friction device for rappelling, made of a frame holding five or more metal bars that the rope is threaded around.
24
verb
To subject a structure to shear, making different parts of it bend, lean, or shift in different directions.
25
verb
Of a horse, to go at a fast amble that rocks or sways the body.
26
noun
A fast amble, quicker than an ordinary ambling pace.
27
noun
Thin, broken clouds driven across the sky by the wind, or any mass of vapor floating overhead.
28
noun
A wooden block or frame fitted with several pulleys that guide a ship's running ropes.
29
noun
The stick that holds wool or flax ready to be spun by hand, also called a distaff.
30
noun
A geared winding device with a toothed bar, a small gear and a catch, used to draw back and cock a crossbow, also called a cranequin.
31
nounobsolete
Any of the bones in a horse's skeleton.
Racks, the bones of a dead horse. Term used by horse-slaughterers.
1873, Slang Dictionary, John Camden Hotten
32
noun
A set equipped with a self-distributive binary operation in which, for any two elements a and b, exactly one element x combines with a to give b.
33
verb
To wash ore or metal on a sloping frame so that water carries off the lighter waste.
34
verb
To seize a pair of lines side by side by wrapping thin cord over and between them in a figure-eight pattern.
35
verb
To move or rush onward swiftly.
36
verb
Of clouds or mist, to drift quickly across the sky, driven by the wind.
37
nounobsolete
A rabbit not yet fully grown, or the pelt taken from one.
Rabbit skins are sorted into wholes, halves, quarters, racks, and suckers, or very small skins.
1892, Henry Poland, Fur-bearing Animals in Nature and in Commerce
38
noun
Arrack, a strong spirit distilled in South and Southeast Asia from palm sap, rice or sugarcane.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of rack apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1–2, 4, 7–8, 10–11, 14, 16–18

Middle Dutch rac, recke or rec (modern Dutch rek) gave Middle English rakke or rekke. Compare rekken.

Meanings 3, 5–6, 12–13, 15, 19–20

From Old English reċċan ("to stretch out, extend").

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

Rack derives from Old English reċċan. en.wiktionary.org
Old English reċċan means “to stretch out, extend”. en.wiktionary.org

Meaning 9

From Middle English rakken.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

Rack derives from Middle English rakken. en.wiktionary.org