Word.ws English Dictionary

racking one's brain

racking one's brain is the present participle and gerund of rack one's brain.

Meaning of rack one's brain

Verb

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

  1. (figuratively) To struggle to think of or remember something.
    • I have been racking my brain all day trying to think of a birthday present for her.

Questions about racking one's brain

What is racking one's brain the present participle and gerund of?
Racking one's brain is the present participle and gerund of rack one's brain.

Words near racking one's brain in the dictionary

  1. racking
  2. racking bend
  3. racking bends
  4. racking in
  5. racking off
  6. racking one's brain
  7. racking one's brains
  8. racking up
  9. rackingly
  10. rackings
  11. rackle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: racking one's brain (page history and authors); rack one's brain (page history and authors). 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.

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