Rackle

//ˈɹæ.kəl// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A chain. Northern-England, Scotland, UK, countable, dialectal
  2. 2
    Noisy talk. Northern-England, Scotland, UK, dialectal, uncountable
Verb
  1. 1
    To talk noisily; rattle on. Northern-England, Scotland, UK, dialectal
Adjective
  1. 1
    Of a person: rash, impetuous, reckless
  2. 2
    Rough, crude
  3. 3
    Sturdy in old age

Synonyms

All synonyms
chainchain

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English rakyl (“chain”), apparently related to Old Frisian rakels (“chain”), French racle ("the iron ring of a door" (from a Germanic source)), and also Middle English rakente, from Old English racente (“chain, fetter”). More at rackan.

Etymology 2

Uncertain. Probably from rack (“to drive; move; go forward rapidly”), alteration of Middle English reken (“to drive; move; tend”), from Old Norse reka, vreka (“to drive; drift; toss”) + -le (“tending or prone to”). Related to Icelandic reka, Swedish vräka, Danish vrage, English wrack.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.