rack

Meanings

Noun

Verb

  • To place in or hang on a rack.
  • To torture (someone) on the rack.
  • To cause (someone) to suffer pain.
  • To stretch or strain; to harass, or oppress by extortion.
  • To put the balls into the triangular rack and set them in place on the table.
  • To strike (a person) in the testicles.
  • To (manually) load (a round of ammunition) from the magazine or belt into firing position in an automatic or semiautomatic firearm.
  • To move the slide bar on a shotgun in order to chamber the next round.
  • To wash (metals, ore, etc.) on a rack.
  • To bind together, as two ropes, with cross turns of yarn, marline, etc.
  • To tend to shear a structure (that is, force it to move in different directions at different points).
  • To stretch a person's joints.
  • To drive; move; go forward rapidly; stir
  • To fly, as vapour or broken clouds
  • To clarify, and thereby deter further fermentation of, beer, wine or cider by draining or siphoning it from the dregs.
  • To amble fast, causing a rocking or swaying motion of the body; to pace.

Origin

  • 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.
  • From Middle English rakken.
  • See rack, or rock.
  • See wreck.

Modern English dictionary

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