rack

Multiple Entries:
  rack    wrack  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
rack1

▶noun

• 1 a framework for holding or storing things.

  ■ a vertically barred holder for animal fodder.

• 2 a cogged or toothed bar or rail engaging with a wheel or pinion, or using pegs to adjust the position of something.

• 3 (the rack) historical an instrument of torture consisting of a frame on which the victim was tied by the wrists and ankles and stretched.

• 4 N. Amer. informal a bed.

• 5 a triangular frame for positioning pool balls.

  ■ a single game of pool.

• 6 N. Amer. a set of deer's antlers.

• 7 a digital effects unit for a guitar or other instrument.

▶verb

• 1 (also wrack) cause extreme pain or distress to.

  ■ archaic oppress (a tenant) by exacting excessive rent.

  ■ historical torture on the rack.

• 2 place in or on a rack.

• 3 (rack something up) accumulate or achieve something.

– phrases
rack (or wrack) one's brains make a great mental effort.

– origin ME: from MDu. rec, Mid. Low Ger. rek ‘a rail or shelf’, prob. from recken ‘to stretch, reach’.

usage: The relationship between the forms rack and wrack is complicated. The most common noun sense of rack ‘a framework for holding and storing things’ is always spelled rack, never wrack. The verb senses that derive from the type of torture in which someone is stretched on a rack can, however, be spelled either rack or wrack: you can be racked with guilt or wracked with guilt; you rack your brains or wrack your brains. In addition, the phrase rack and ruin can also be spelled wrack and ruin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
rack2

▶noun a horse's gait between a trot and a canter. ▶verb

• 1 (of a horse) move with such a gait.

• 2 (rack off) Austral. informal go away.

– origin C16: of unknown origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
rack3

▶noun a joint of meat, especially lamb, including the front ribs.

– origin C16: of unknown origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
rack4 (also wrack)

▶noun (in phr. go to rack and ruin) gradually deteriorate due to neglect.

– origin OE wræc ‘vengeance, destruction’, rel. to wreak; cf. wrack4.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
rack5

▶verb draw off (wine, beer, etc.) from the sediment in the barrel.

– origin C15: from Provençal arracar, from raca ‘stems and husks of grapes, dregs’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
rack6

▶noun variant spelling of wrack3. ▶verb archaic (of a cloud) be driven before the wind.

– origin ME (denoting a rush or collision): prob. of Scand. origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
wrack1

▶verb variant spelling of rack1, rack4.

usage: On the complicated relationship between wrack and rack, see usage at rack1.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
wrack2

▶noun a coarse brown seaweed which grows on the shoreline, often with air bladders providing buoyancy. [Several species belonging to Fucus and other genera.]

– origin C16: appar. from wrack4; cf. varec.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
wrack3 (also rack)

▶noun a mass of high, thick, fast-moving cloud.

– origin ME: var. of rack6.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
wrack4

▶noun archaic or dialect a shipwreck.

■ wreckage.

– origin ME: from MDu. wrak; rel. to wreak and wreck.