rack

plural racks

1. A series of one or more shelves, stacked one above the other.
2. Any of various kinds of frame for holding luggage or other objects on a vehicle or vessel.

   Synonyms: luggage rack

3. historicalA device, incorporating a ratchet, used to torture victims by stretching them beyond their natural limits.

   Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack, / Where men enforced do speak anything.

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]

   1 more example

   During the troubles of the fifteenth century, a rack was introduced into the Tower, and was occasionally used under the plea of political necessity.

   1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter I, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC

4. nauticalA piece or frame of wood, having several sheaves, through which the running rigging passes.

   Synonyms: rack block

5. especiallyslangnauticalA bunk.

   Chief Stevens approached my rack and repeatedly ordered me to vacate my rack and report to the working party.

   2008, Byron L. Smith, Prescription Music, →ISBN, page 33

   2 more examples

   By the time I had unpacked my sea bag, made my rack, and finished a good long hot shower, it was late in the evening.

   2010, Herb Brewer, Chronicles of a Marine Rifleman: Vietnam, 1965-1966, →ISBN, page 171

   I took off my helmet, sat it gently down at the head of my rack on the wooden deck, plopped my butt down on my rack again, and began taking off my stateside assbusting boots.

   2016, Cpl. Osborn R. E, Like Killing Rats, →ISBN

6. broadlyslanguncountablenauticalSleep.

   Do I have to do this now? Like, I really need to get some rack.

   2009 December 18, 1:00:07 from the start, in Avatar, spoken by Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), 20th Century Fox

7. A distaff.
8. engineeringA 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.

   Holonym: rack and pinion

   2 more examples

   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.

   1950 November, H. P. White, “The Furka-Oberalp Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 767

   The ladder-type Riggenbach rack is the one in use on both systems.

   1960 December, 'Voyageur', “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 750

9. engineeringA 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.
10. A cranequin, a mechanism including a rack, pinion and pawl, providing both mechanical advantage and a ratchet, used to bend and cock a crossbow.
11. A set of antlers (as on deer, moose or elk).
12. A cut of meat involving several adjacent ribs.

    I bought a rack of lamb at the butcher's yesterday.

13. obsoleteA bone of a horse.

    Racks, the bones of a dead horse. Term used by horse-slaughterers.

    1873, Slang Dictionary, John Camden Hotten

    1 more example

    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.

    1722, William Gibson, The Farrier's New Guide, page 65

14. ball gamesA hollow triangle used for aligning the balls at the start of a game.
15. gamblingA plastic tray used for holding and moving chips.
16. slangvulgarA woman's breasts.

    Synonyms: assets, babylons, balloons, baps, badonkers, bangers, bazongas, bazookas

17. cavingA friction device for abseiling, consisting of a frame with five or more metal bars, around which the rope is threaded.

    rappel rack

    1 more example

    abseil rack

18. slangclimbingA climber's set of equipment for setting up protection and belays, consisting of runners, slings, carabiners, nuts, Friends, etc.

    I used almost a full rack on the second pitch.

19. A grate on which bacon is laid.
20. algebraA set with a distributive binary operation whose action on the set is invertible.
21. slangA thousand dollars, especially if the proceeds are from a crime.

present singular third person racks · participle present racking · participle past racked · past racked · first person past singular racked · archaic present second person singular rackest · past second person singular racked · archaic past second person singular rackedst · present singular third person racks · archaic present singular third person racketh · past singular third person racked · past plural racked · past subjunctive racked · participle present racking · participle past racked

1. To place in or hang on a rack.
2. To torture (someone) on the rack.

   He was racked and miserably tormented.

   1563 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   As the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt later recalled, his father, Henry VII's jewel-house keeper Henry Wyatt, had been racked on the orders of Richard III, who had sat there and watched.

   2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 228

3. To cause (someone) to suffer pain.

   Vaunting aloud but racked with deep despair.

   1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   Synonyms: torment, torture, ache, afflict, aggrieve, agonize, anguish, dere

4. figurativelyTo stretch or strain; to harass, or oppress by extortion.

   The landlords there most shamefully rack their tenants.

   1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   Try what my credit can in Venice do; / That shall be racked even to the uttermost.

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

   Grant that I may never rack a Scripture Similie, beyond the true intent thereof.

   1645, Thomas Fuller, “Scripture Observations”, in Good Thoughts in Bad Times, […], Exeter, Devon: […] Thomas Hunt, →OCLC, section I, page 69

5. obsoletehuman sciencesTo alternately concatenate two words to magical effect.

   Foꝛ when we heare one racke the name of God,/Abiure the ſcriptures, and his Sauiour Chꝛiſt...

   1589–1592 (date written), Ch[ristopher] Marl[owe], The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Thomas Bushell, published 1604, →OCLC, signature B2, recto

6. ball gamesTo put the balls into the triangular rack and set them in place on the table.

   Synonyms: rack up

7. slangtransitiveTo strike in the testicles.

   1 more example

   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!)

   1999 November 2, Squad Leader, “CUPS Required for Gym Class?”, in alt.support.jock-strap (Usenet)

8. slangTo shoplift (especially in a megastore), often by taking off of a rack.

   He racked three boxes of gum!

   1 more example

   my buddy used to go racking for spray paint at the home despot. then a banger shot him in the head one night.^([sic])

   2007 May 4, streetwords, Urban Dictionary

9. broadlyTo take that which belongs to another, without regard of right or permission.

   Synonyms: steal

10. engineeringTo (manually) load (a round of ammunition) from the magazine or belt into firing position in an automatic or semiautomatic firearm.
11. engineeringTo move the slide bar on a shotgun in order to chamber the next round.
12. businessTo wash (metals, ore, etc.) on a rack.
13. nauticalTo bind together, as two ropes, with cross turns of yarn, marline, etc.
14. structural engineeringTo 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.

    1 more example

    The racking strength of a wall system is defined in terms of its ability to resist horizon­tal inplane shear forces. The shear, or racking, forces which act on wail systems arise primarily from wind.

    1977, Roger L. Tuomi, David S. Gromala, “Racking Strength of Walls”, in USDA Forest Service Research Paper, number FPL 301

    Synonyms: shear

present singular third person racks · participle present racking · participle past racked · past racked

1. To drive; move; go forward rapidly; stir.
2. To fly, as vapour or broken clouds.

1. uncountableThin, flying, broken clouds, or any portion of floating vapour in the sky.

   And the night rack came rolling up.

   1851, Charles Kingsley, Three Fishers

   2 more examples

   The winds in the upper region, which move the clouds above, which we call the rack, […] pass without noise.

   1669, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum or A Natural History in ten Centuries, page 32

   Sometime we see a cloud that's dragonish ... That which is now a horse ... The rack dislimns, and makes it indistinct

   c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene xiv]

present singular third person racks · participle present racking · participle past racked · past racked

1. beveragesTo clarify, and thereby deter further fermentation of, beer, wine or cider by draining or siphoning it from the dregs.

   The Darwin administrator, J.C. Archer, with great ceremony, turned on the flow to rack the precious golden stuff into casks.

   1987, Keith Dunstan, The Amber Nectar, Ringwood: Vicking O'Neil, page 108

   1 more example

   It is in common practice to draw wine or beer from the lees (which we call racking), whereby it will clarify much the sooner.

   1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC

present singular third person racks · participle present racking · participle past racked · past racked

1. 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

   1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)

plural racks

1. A fast amble.

plural racks

1. obsoleteA wreck; destruction.

   All goes to rack.

   1665 September 18 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “September 9th, 1665”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume V, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1895, →OCLC

plural racks

1. obsoleteA young rabbit, or its skin.

   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, page 289

   3 more examples

   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.

   1869 February 13, “Rabbit Skin”, in All the Year Round, page 247

   The skin of a sucker is white, of a quarter, black and white striped, of a rack all black, and of a best all white.

   1879, Ure's Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, page 380

   Those would be of different shades of colour according to the time of year at which they were produced, those bred about May-day undergoing no change from their white colour, but from a white rack become a whole skin; […]

   1882, Bees, rabbits, and pigeons; how to breed and how to rear them

1. alternativeuncountableAlternative form of arak.

   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.

   1907, George Manville Fenn, Trapped by Malays: A Tale of Bayonet and Kris, page 347

1. abbreviationinitialismuncountableBDSMInitialism of risk-aware consensual kink.