Word.ws English Dictionary

rack

UK/ɹæk/

More pronunciations (2)Fewer pronunciations

British/ɹak/

rack noun: a series of one or more shelves, stacked one above the other. Also the alternative form of arak.

Noun (1)

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. (historical) A 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]...
    • 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...
  4. A piece or frame of wood, having several sheaves, through which the running rigging passes.
    Synonyms:
    rack block
  5. (especially, slang) A 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
    • 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
  6. (broadly, slang, uncountable) Sleep.
    • 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. 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.
    • Holonym: rack and pinion
    • 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
  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.
    • I bought a rack of lamb at the butcher's yesterday.
Show 9 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (obsolete) A bone of a horse.
    • 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
    • Racks, the bones of a dead horse. Term used by horse-slaughterers.1873, Slang Dictionary, John Camden Hotten
  2. A hollow triangle used for aligning the balls at the start of a game.
  3. A plastic tray used for holding and moving chips.
  4. (slang, vulgar) A woman's breasts.
  5. A friction device for abseiling, consisting of a frame with five or more metal bars, around which the rope is threaded.
    • rappel rack
    • abseil rack
  6. (slang) A 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.
  7. A grate on which bacon is laid.
  8. A set with a distributive binary operation whose action on the set is invertible.
  9. (slang) A thousand dollars, especially if the proceeds are from a crime.

Verb (1)

rack (third-person singular simple present racks, present participle racking, simple past and past participle 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
    • 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...
  4. (figuratively) To stretch or strain; to harass, or oppress by extortion.
    • 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]...
    • 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 […]...
  5. (obsolete) To 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. To put the balls into the triangular rack and set them in place on the table.
    Synonyms:
    rack up
  7. (slang, transitive) To strike in the testicles.
    • 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...1999 November 2, Squad Leader, “CUPS Required for Gym Class?”, in alt.support.jock-strap (Usenet)
  8. (slang) To shoplift (especially in a megastore), often by taking off of a rack.
    • He racked three boxes of gum!
    • 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. (broadly) To take that which belongs to another, without regard of right or permission.
    Synonyms:
    steal
  10. To (manually) load (a round of ammunition) from the magazine or belt into firing position in an automatic or semiautomatic firearm.
  11. To move the slide bar on a shotgun in order to chamber the next round.
  12. To wash (metals, ore, etc.) on a rack.
  13. To bind together, as two ropes, with cross turns of yarn, marline, etc.
  14. (structural engineering) To 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.
    • 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

Verb (2)

rack (third-person singular simple present racks, present participle racking, simple past and past participle racked)

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

Noun (2)

rack (uncountable)

  1. Thin, flying, broken clouds, or any portion of floating vapour in the sky.
    • 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
    • And the night rack came rolling up.1851, Charles Kingsley, Three Fishers

Verb (3)

rack (third-person singular simple present racks, present participle racking, simple past and past participle racked)

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

Verb (4)

rack (third-person singular simple present racks, present participle racking, simple past and past participle 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 away1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)

Noun (3)

rack (plural racks)

  1. A fast amble.

Noun (4)

rack (plural racks)

  1. (obsolete) A 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...

Noun (5)

rack (plural racks)

  1. (obsolete) A young rabbit, or its skin.
    • 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

Noun (6) capitalized: RACK

RACK (uncountable)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of risk-aware consensual kink.

Also used as

rack is also the alternative form of arak.

rack meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

rack in Hindi

torture device
शिकंजा śikañjā

rack in Tamil

ரேக், ரேக் செய்ய

rack in Marathi

रॅक

rack in Urdu

ریک کرنا
More languagesFewer languages
rack in Bengali
র্যাক
rack in Telugu
ర్యాక్, ర్యాక్ చెయ్యడానికి
rack in Malayalam
റാക്ക്, റാക്, റാക്ക് ചെയ്യാൻ
rack in Kannada
ರ್ಯಾಕ್
rack in Punjabi
ਰੈਕ, ਰੈੱਕ, ਰੈਕ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ
rack in Gujarati
રેક, રૅક
rack in Odia
ର୍ଯ଼ାକ୍, ର୍ଯ଼ାକ୍ କରିବାକୁ
rack in Nepali
र्याक, र्याक गर्न
rack in Arabic
مَكْتَبَة شَخْصِيَّة
rack in Persian
قفسه qafase, رگال regâl
rack in Vietnamese
giá

Examples of rack in a sentence

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

All 40 example sentences with rack

Synonyms of rack

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of rack

Forms of rack

Noun
pluralracks
Verb
third-person singular presentracks
present participleracking
past participleracked
pastracked

Past tense of rack: racked

Plural of rack: racks

Origin of rack

From Middle English rakke, rekke, from Middle Dutch rac, recke, rec (Dutch rek), see rekken.

From Old English reċċan (“to stretch out, extend”).

From Middle English reken, from Old Norse reka (“to be drifted, tost”) The noun is from Middle English rak, rakke, from Middle English rek (“drift; thing tossed ashore; jetsam”), from the verb.

Words formed from rack

Phrases with rack

25 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with rack

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about rack

What does rack mean?
Rack means a series of one or more shelves, stacked one above the other.
What is rack in Hindi?
Rack in Hindi is शिकंजा (śikañjā). See Rack meaning in Hindi.
How do you use rack in a sentence?
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.
What part of speech is rack?
Rack can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce rack?
Rack is pronounced /ɹæk/ (UK).
What is the plural of rack?
The plural of rack is racks.

Words near rack in the dictionary

  1. racistly
  2. racists
  3. Raciti
  4. Raciu
  5. racization
  6. rack
  7. rack and pinion
  8. rack and pinions
  9. rack and ruin
  10. rack and snail
  11. rack bar

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rack (page history and authors); RACK (page history and authors); rack (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rack (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rack (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rack (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rack (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rack (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rack (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rack (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rack (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rack (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); rack (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-rack.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-rack.wav.

Cite this entry: “rack.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rack. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.