rack

rack¹ [ræk] n

[Sense: 1-3,5-7; Date: 1300-1400; : Middle Dutch; Origin: rec 'frame']

[Sense: 4; Origin: Old English wrAc 'unhappiness, punishment']

1.) a frame or shelf that has bars or hooks on which you can put things

▪ a wine rack

▪ a magazine rack

→↑luggage rack, ↑roof-rack

2.) the rack

a piece of equipment that was used in the past to make people suffer severe pain by stretching their bodies

▪ Thousands of people were tortured on the rack.

3.) on the rack

BrE informal in a very difficult situation

▪ The company is now well and truly on the rack.

4.) go to rack and ruin

if a building goes to rack and ruin, it gradually gets into a very bad condition because no one has looked after it

▪ The house had been left to go to rack and ruin.

5.) AmE a three-sided frame used for arranging the balls at the start of a game of ↑snooker or ↑pool

6.) a rack of lamb/pork

a fairly large piece of meat from the side of an animal, that contains several ↑rib bones

7.) off the rack

AmE if you can buy something off the rack, you can buy it in a shop rather than having it specially made

British Equivalent: off the peg

▪ A lot of designer clothes are now available off the rack.

rack ²

rack² v

1.) [T usually passive]

to make someone suffer great mental or physical pain

▪ Great sobs racked her body .

be racked by/with sth

▪ Her face was racked with pain.

▪ Liza was racked by guilt.

2.) rack your brains

to try very hard to remember or think of something

▪ I racked my brains, trying to remember his name.

rack up [rack sth<=>up] phr v

to get a number or amount of something, especially a number of points in a competition

▪ He racked up 41 points.