rack

Etymology 1
From, , from , , (🇨🇬), see.

Noun

 * 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.
 * 3)   A device, incorporating a ratchet, used to torture victims by stretching them beyond their natural limits.
 * 4)  A piece or frame of wood, having several sheaves, through which the running rigging passes.
 * 5)  A bunk.
 * 6)  Sleep.
 * 7) A distaff.
 * 8)  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.
 * 9)  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.
 * 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.
 * 13)   A hollow triangle used for aligning the balls at the start of a game.
 * 14)  A plastic tray used for holding and moving chips.
 * 15)   A woman's breasts.
 * 16)  A friction device for abseiling, consisting of a frame with five or more metal bars, around which the rope is threaded.
 * 17)   A climber's set of equipment for setting up protection and belays, consisting of runners, slings, carabiners, nuts, Friends, etc.
 * 18) A grate on which bacon is laid.
 * 19)  A set with a distributive binary operation whose result is unique.
 * 20)  A thousand, especially if proceeds of a crime.
 * 1) A set of antlers (as on deer, moose or elk).
 * 2)  A cut of meat involving several adjacent ribs.
 * 3)   A hollow triangle used for aligning the balls at the start of a game.
 * 4)  A plastic tray used for holding and moving chips.
 * 5)   A woman's breasts.
 * 6)  A friction device for abseiling, consisting of a frame with five or more metal bars, around which the rope is threaded.
 * 7)   A climber's set of equipment for setting up protection and belays, consisting of runners, slings, carabiners, nuts, Friends, etc.
 * 8) A grate on which bacon is laid.
 * 9)  A set with a distributive binary operation whose result is unique.
 * 10)  A thousand, especially if proceeds of a crime.
 * 1)   A climber's set of equipment for setting up protection and belays, consisting of runners, slings, carabiners, nuts, Friends, etc.
 * 2) A grate on which bacon is laid.
 * 3)  A set with a distributive binary operation whose result is unique.
 * 4)  A thousand, especially if proceeds of a crime.
 * 1)  A thousand, especially if proceeds of a crime.

Translations

 * Arabic: مَكْتَبَة شَخْصِيَّة
 * Armenian:
 * Basque: apal
 * Breton: estajerenn
 * Bulgarian: стелаж
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin:
 * Dutch: ,
 * Esperanto: rako
 * Finnish:, , ,
 * French:
 * Georgian:
 * German:
 * Irish: raca, aidhleann, alchaing
 * Italian:
 * Khmer:
 * Latin: pluteus
 * Mongolian:
 * Persian:
 * Polish:
 * Portuguese:, , compartimentos
 * Romanian: ,
 * Russian:, ,
 * Spanish: ,
 * Thai:
 * Vietnamese:


 * Armenian: ,
 * Catalan:
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin: 刑架
 * Czech:
 * Dutch:
 * Finnish:
 * French:
 * German:
 * Greek:
 * Ancient: στρεβλωτήριον
 * Hindi:
 * Irish: raca céasta
 * Italian: eculeo
 * Latin: equuleus
 * Portuguese:, ecúleo
 * Russian:
 * Spanish:
 * Swedish:


 * Armenian:
 * Basque: esekitoki
 * Bulgarian:
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin:
 * Dutch:
 * Esperanto: vestarko
 * Finnish:
 * Georgian:
 * Ingrian: veešalka
 * Irish: raca, aidhleann, alchaing
 * Khmer: ប្រដាប់ព្យួរ
 * Korean: 횃대
 * Maori: tīrewa
 * Mongolian:
 * Persian: رگال
 * Polish:
 * Russian:
 * Spanish:
 * Swedish: (for clothing)
 * Thai:
 * Turkish:
 * Vietnamese:


 * Bulgarian:
 * French:
 * Irish: raca
 * Polish:
 * Swedish:


 * Bulgarian: балкон
 * Catalan:
 * Finnish:, ,
 * French: ,
 * German: Holz vor der Hütte
 * Irish: brollach, cliabh
 * Polish: bufory, zderzaki
 * Portuguese:
 * Russian:
 * Swedish:

Etymology 2
From.

Verb

 * 1) To place in or hang on a rack.
 * 2) To torture (someone) on the rack.
 * 3) To cause (someone) to suffer pain.
 * 4)  To stretch or strain; to harass, or oppress by extortion.
 * 5)  To put the balls into the triangular rack and set them in place on the table.
 * 6)  To strike in the testicles.
 * 7)  To (manually) load (a round of ammunition) from the magazine or belt into firing position in an automatic or semiautomatic firearm.
 * 8)  To move the slide bar on a shotgun in order to chamber the next round.
 * 9)  To wash (metals, ore, etc.) on a rack.
 * 10)  To bind together, as two ropes, with cross turns of yarn, marline, etc.
 * 11)   To tend to shear a structure (that is, force it to bend, lean, or move in different directions at different points).
 * 1)  To strike in the testicles.
 * 2)  To (manually) load (a round of ammunition) from the magazine or belt into firing position in an automatic or semiautomatic firearm.
 * 3)  To move the slide bar on a shotgun in order to chamber the next round.
 * 4)  To wash (metals, ore, etc.) on a rack.
 * 5)  To bind together, as two ropes, with cross turns of yarn, marline, etc.
 * 6)   To tend to shear a structure (that is, force it to bend, lean, or move in different directions at different points).
 * 1)  To bind together, as two ropes, with cross turns of yarn, marline, etc.
 * 2)   To tend to shear a structure (that is, force it to bend, lean, or move in different directions at different points).

Usage notes
In senses “torture” and “suffer pain”, frequently confused with (more rarely, ), both as stand-alone verb and in compounds. In most uses, rack is correct, and wrack is incorrect. Etymologically,, , and , are correct, while  and  are incorrect variants of  and.

Usage guidance differs: either prefer the etymologically correct term, prefer rack to (archaic) wrack, or use either. The etymologically correct forms are preferred by some style guides, but the unetymological forms are well-established and in wide use, and other style guides simply consider them variant spellings. Other style guides categorically ban wrack as archaic, suggesting modern synonyms like, , or. In some cases style guides are confused by the etymology, or feature unhistorical forms such as.

This confusion dates to Early Modern English in the 16th century (as in ), and is presumably due to the influence of ⟨wr⟩ in words such as, , , etc., which connote discomfort and torment. Formally termed the graphaesthesia of the graphaestheme ⟨wr⟩, since identical sound /r/ to ⟨r⟩; compare with phonaesthesia. Compare /, and also ⟨gh⟩ as in and.

Derived terms



 * rack off

Translations

 * Maori: kōhurehure


 * Bulgarian:


 * Portuguese: ,

Etymology 3
From, from

The noun is from, , from , from the verb.

Verb

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

Noun

 * 1) Thin, flying, broken clouds, or any portion of floating vapour in the sky.

Etymology 4
From.

Verb

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

Translations

 * Dutch:
 * Finnish:, räkätä
 * German: abstechen
 * Spanish:

Etymology 5
See, or.

Verb

 * 1)  To amble fast, causing a rocking or swaying motion of the body; to pace.

Noun

 * 1) A fast amble.

Etymology 6
See.

Noun

 * 1)  A wreck; destruction.

Etymology 7
. Perhaps a contraction of, an alteration of.

Noun

 * 1)  A young rabbit, or its skin.

Etymology
.

Noun

 * 1) a  (for holding electronic equipment)
 * 2)  (considered erroneous by some – see the usage notes for that entry)
 * 1)  (considered erroneous by some – see the usage notes for that entry)
 * 1)  (considered erroneous by some – see the usage notes for that entry)