rack: Meaning and Definition of

rack

1. a framework of bars, wires, or pegs on which articles are arranged or deposited: a clothes rack; a luggage rack.
2. a fixture containing several tiered shelves, often affixed to a wall: a book rack; a spice rack.
3. a spreading framework set on a wagon for carrying hay, straw, or the like, in large loads.
4. He took aim at the rack.
1. a wooden frame of triangular shape within which the balls are arranged before play.
2. the balls so arranged:He took aim at the rack.
1. a bar, with teeth on one of its sides, adapted to engage with the teeth of a pinion(rack and pinion)or the like, as for converting circular into rectilinear motion or vice versa.
2. a bar having a series of notches engaging with a pawl or the like.
6. a former instrument of torture consisting of a framework on which a victim was tied, often spread-eagled, by the wrists and ankles, to be slowly stretched by spreading the parts of the framework.
7. a cause or state of intense suffering of body or mind.
8. torment; anguish.
9. violent strain.
10. a pair of antlers.
11. a bed, cot, or bunk: I spent all afternoon in the rack.

1. to torture; distress acutely; torment: His body was racked with pain.
2. to strain in mental effort: to rack one's brains.
3. to strain by physical force or violence.
4. to strain beyond what is normal or usual.
5. to stretch the body of (a person) in torture by means of a rack.
6. to seize (two ropes) together side by side.
7. to go to bed; go to sleep: I racked out all afternoon.
8. The corporation racked up the greatest profits in its history.
1. Pool.to put (the balls) in a rack.
2. Informal.to tally, accumulate, or amass as an achievement or score:The corporation racked up the greatest profits in its history.

rack

1. ruin or destruction; wrack.
2. to decay, decline, or become destroyed: His property went to rack and ruin in his absence.

1. to wreck, esp. a vehicle.

rack

1. the fast pace of a horse in which the legs move in lateral pairs but not simultaneously.

1. (of horses) to move in a rack.

rack

1. Also calleda group of drifting clouds.

1. to drive or move, esp. before the wind.

rack

1. to draw off (wine, cider, etc.) from the lees.

rack

1. the neck portion of mutton, pork, or veal.
2. the rib section of a foresaddle of lamb, mutton, or sometimes veal.