rack | Lernwerd

Forms

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.
3.A piece or frame of wood, having several sheaves, through which the running rigging passes.
4.A bunk.(slang)
- Chief Stevens approached my rack and repeatedly ordered me to vacate my rack and report to the working party.
- 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.
- 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.

1.To cause (someone) to suffer pain.
- Vaunting aloud but racked with deep despair.
2.To stretch or strain; to harass, or oppress by extortion.
- The landlords there most shamefully rack their tenants.
- Grant that I may never rack a Scripture Similie, beyond the true intent thereof.
- Try what my credit can in Venice do; / That shall be racked even to the uttermost.
3.To place in or hang on a rack.
4.To torture (someone) on the rack.
- He was racked and miserably tormented.
- 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.

Rare· #5017

From Middle English rakke, rekke

From Middle Dutch rac, recke, rec (Dutch rek), see rekken.