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Rack
Definitions
- 1 A series of one or more shelves, stacked one above the other.
- 2 Thin, flying, broken clouds, or any portion of floating vapour in the sky. uncountable
"The winds in the upper region, which move the clouds above, which we call the rack, […] pass without noise."
- 3 A fast amble.
- 4 A wreck; destruction. obsolete
"All goes to rack."
- 5 A young rabbit, or its skin. obsolete
"Now, sir, you would say a skin is a skin, we say it is a ' whole,' or a 'half,' or a 'quarter,' or a 'rack,' or a 'sucker. Suckers are skins of infant rabbits, and of little value. Eight racks are equal to one whole."
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- 6 Alternative form of arak. alt-of, alternative, uncountable
"If it was my officers wanted a stone jar of rack or a dozen of bottled ale, I might manage 'em, but I'm nowhere with sacks."
- 7 Initialism of risk-aware consensual kink. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, uncountable
- 8 a rapid gait of a horse in which each foot strikes the ground separately wordnet
- 9 Any of various kinds of frame for holding luggage or other objects on a vehicle or vessel.
- 10 a form of torture in which pain is inflicted by stretching the body wordnet
- 11 A device, incorporating a ratchet, used to torture victims by stretching them beyond their natural limits. historical
"Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack, / Where men enforced do speak anything."
- 12 a support for displaying or holding various articles wordnet
- 13 A piece or frame of wood, having several sheaves, through which the running rigging passes.
- 14 an instrument of torture that stretches or disjoints or mutilates victims wordnet
- 15 A bunk. especially, slang
"Chief Stevens approached my rack and repeatedly ordered me to vacate my rack and report to the working party."
- 16 the destruction or collapse of something wordnet
- 17 Sleep. broadly, slang, uncountable
"Do I have to do this now? Like, I really need to get some rack."
- 18 rib section of a forequarter of veal or pork or especially lamb or mutton wordnet
- 19 A distaff.
- 20 A bar with teeth on its face or edge, to work with those of a gearwheel, pinion, or worm, which is to drive or be driven by it.
"Just beyond that station the first step is encountered and the rack resorted to, taking the line on a gradient of 1 in 9 over a steeply inclined bridge and through a spiral tunnel."
- 21 A bar with teeth on its face or edge, to work with a pawl as a ratchet allowing movement in one direction only, used for example in a handbrake or crossbow.
- 22 A cranequin, a mechanism including a rack, pinion and pawl, providing both mechanical advantage and a ratchet, used to bend and cock a crossbow.
- 23 A set of antlers (as on deer, moose or elk).
- 24 A cut of meat involving several adjacent ribs.
"I bought a rack of lamb at the butcher's yesterday."
- 25 A bone of a horse. obsolete
"The Par quadratum […] Their Use is to bend the Racks of the Loins with a right Motion forward or downward, but when one only acts, it draws the Loins to one Side somewhat downwards."
- 26 A hollow triangle used for aligning the balls at the start of a game.
- 27 A plastic tray used for holding and moving chips.
- 28 A woman's breasts. slang, vulgar
- 29 A friction device for abseiling, consisting of a frame with five or more metal bars, around which the rope is threaded.
"rappel rack"
- 30 A climber's set of equipment for setting up protection and belays, consisting of runners, slings, carabiners, nuts, Friends, etc. slang
"I used almost a full rack on the second pitch."
- 31 A grate on which bacon is laid.
- 32 A set with a distributive binary operation whose action on the set is invertible.
- 33 A thousand dollars, especially if the proceeds are from a crime. slang
- 1 To place in or hang on a rack.
- 2 To drive; move; go forward rapidly; stir.
- 3 To clarify, and thereby deter further fermentation of, beer, wine or cider by draining or siphoning it from the dregs.
"It is in common practice to draw wine or beer from the lees (which we call racking), whereby it will clarify much the sooner."
- 4 To amble fast, causing a rocking or swaying motion of the body; to pace.
"The other two (only racking, no thorough-paced protestants) watched their opportunity to run away"
- 5 torture on the rack wordnet
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- 6 To torture (someone) on the rack.
"He was racked and miserably tormented."
- 7 To fly, as vapour or broken clouds.
- 8 seize together, as of parallel ropes of a tackle in order to prevent running through the block wordnet
- 9 To cause (someone) to suffer pain.
"Vaunting aloud but racked with deep despair."
- 10 place in a rack wordnet
- 11 To stretch or strain; to harass, or oppress by extortion. figuratively
"Try what my credit can in Venice do; / That shall be racked even to the uttermost."
- 12 work on a rack wordnet
- 13 To alternately concatenate two words to magical effect. obsolete
"Foꝛ when we heare one racke the name of God,/Abiure the ſcriptures, and his Sauiour Chꝛiſt..."
- 14 stretch to the limits wordnet
- 15 To put the balls into the triangular rack and set them in place on the table.
- 16 torment emotionally or mentally wordnet
- 17 To strike in the testicles. slang, transitive
"Bike7125 raises a great point suggesting that cups could have been recommended "optional" equipment in school PE. I never got racked by a baseball or softball, but we did have a gym teacher, who insisted on a weekly session of a "cruelty sport" called bombardment. The idea was to throw basketballs at a line of guys, and try to hit them. (Guess where most gym bullys aimed!)"
- 18 draw off from the lees wordnet
- 19 To shoplift (especially in a megastore), often by taking off of a rack. slang
"He racked three boxes of gum!"
- 20 fly in high wind wordnet
- 21 To take that which belongs to another, without regard of right or permission. broadly
- 22 run before a gale wordnet
- 23 To (manually) load (a round of ammunition) from the magazine or belt into firing position in an automatic or semiautomatic firearm.
- 24 go at a rack wordnet
- 25 To move the slide bar on a shotgun in order to chamber the next round.
- 26 obtain by coercion or intimidation wordnet
- 27 To wash (metals, ore, etc.) on a rack.
- 28 put on a rack and pinion wordnet
- 29 To bind together, as two ropes, with cross turns of yarn, marline, etc.
- 30 To tend to shear a structure (that is, force it to bend, lean, or move in different directions at different points).
"Post-and-lintel construction racks easily."
Etymology
From Middle English rakke, rekke, from Middle Dutch rac, recke, rec (Dutch rek), see rekken.
From Old English reċċan (“to stretch out, extend”).
From Middle English reken, from Old Norse reka (“to be drifted, tost”) The noun is from Middle English rak, rakke, from Middle English rek (“drift; thing tossed ashore; jetsam”), from the verb.
From Middle English reken, from Old Norse reka (“to be drifted, tost”) The noun is from Middle English rak, rakke, from Middle English rek (“drift; thing tossed ashore; jetsam”), from the verb.
From Middle English rakken.
See rack (“that which stretches”), or rock (verb).
See rack (“that which stretches”), or rock (verb).
See wreck.
Uncertain. Perhaps a contraction of rabbock, an alteration ( + -ock) of rabbit.
See also for "rack"
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