rack up

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

1. ambitransitiveball gamesTo arrange in a rack.

   If you rack up, I'll break.

   1 more example

   At the start of the game, the referee racks up the red balls.

2. idiomaticTo gain (points etc.; in a game or sport), to accumulate.

   Chelsea racked up another 3 points at home to Bolton.

   2 more examples

   In between, Mesut Özil's penalty was saved and Arsenal racked up more chances than they would probably want to remember.

   2013 November 26, Daniel Taylor, “Jack Wilshere scores twice to ease Arsenal to victory over Marseille”, in The Guardian

   As the hearings open, Every Breath You Take sits in the Top 10 of the most-streamed songs daily worldwide on Spotify, racking up about 3.5m plays on that platform alone each day: more than some of the most popular songs of recent times such as Billie Eilish’s Birds of a Feather and Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’s Die With a Smile.

   2026 January 15, Ben Beaumont-Thomas, “‘A nasty little song, really rather evil’: how Every Breath You Take tore Sting and the Police apart”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

3. idiomaticTo acquire, to gather together.

   By the age of 18, he had already racked up thousands of dollars in debt.

   1 more example

   Rack up your arm candy with this schmancy bangle, watch, and bracelet set from Anne Klein.

   2024 October 8, Megan Uy, Tarah-Lynn Saint-Elien, “65+ Fall Prime Day Fashion Deals Your Closet Is Begging You to Shop”, in Cosmopolitan

4. idiomaticTo defeat severely, to thrash.
5. gamblingTo collect one's chips and cash out.
6. To attribute, chalk up.

   A number of times I heard Bruce say, in passing, "I just don't see why everyone has to be labeled. I just don't think words like homosexual — or gay — do anything for anybody." And I would hold my counsel and rack it up to age.

   1986, Samuel R. Delany, Joseph Beam, “The Possibility of Possibilities”, in Joseph Beam, editor, In The Life: A Black Gay Anthology, page 204