1. a framework of bars, wires, or pegs on which articles are arranged or deposited: a clothes rack;a luggage rack.
2. a fixture containing several tiered shelves, often affixed to a wall: a book rack;a spice rack.
3. a vertical framework set on the sides of a wagon and able to be extended upward for carrying hay, straw, or the like in large loads: It's an old wagon, but the bale rack is new.
4. Pool.
• a wooden frame of triangular shape within which the balls are arranged before play: When not in use, please return the rack to its peg on the wall.
• the balls so arranged: He took aim at the rack.
5. Machinery.
• a bar, with teeth on one of its sides, adapted to engage with the teeth of a pinion (rack and pinion ) or the like, as for converting circular into rectilinear motion or vice versa: When the pinion mounted to the locomotive engages with the rack between the rails, the train can ascend a steep slope.
• a bar having a series of notches engaging with a pawl or the like: Instead of a round gear, this ratchet has a linear rack with which the pawl makes contact.
6. a former instrument of torture consisting of a framework on which a victim was tied, often spread-eagled, by the wrists and ankles, to be slowly stretched by spreading the parts of the framework: The racks were unspeakably horrid devices used for centuries throughout Europe.
7. a cause or state of intense mental or physical suffering, torment, or strain: Too many workers have suffered on the rack of annual, painful increases in their health insurance premiums.
8. a pair of antlers: What hunting lodge would be complete without an eight-point rack mounted above the fireplace?
9. a woman's breasts.
10. a large quantity of money, especially one thousand dollars: I spent a whole rack on this fancy dinner and it wasn't worth it.The engagement ring he bought her cost a couple of racks.
11. a bed, cot, or bunk, especially in an institutional context such as the military or a prison: I spent all afternoon in my rack.

12. to torture; distress acutely; torment: His body was racked with pain.
13. to strain in mental effort: She racked her brains to come up with an excuse not to go to the party.
14. to strain by physical force or violence: Was this suspect racked into a confession?
15. to strain beyond what is normal or usual: This extreme exercise is racking your muscles.
16. formerly, to stretch the body of (a person) in torture by means of a rack: The prisoner will be taken to the dungeon to be racked.
17. to seize (two ropes) together side by side: Rack those lines, mate!

18. to go to bed; go to sleep: I racked out all afternoon.
19. rack up,
• to tally, accumulate, or amass, as an achievement or score: The corporation racked up the greatest profits in its history.
• to put (the balls) in a rack: You rack 'em up, and I'll break.

1. ruin or destruction; wrack:We found our boat in a complete state of rack.

2. to wreck, especially a vehicle: People don't realize how easy it is to rack up a car in this fog.

3. to decay, decline, or become destroyed: His property went to rack and ruin in his absence.

1. the fast pace of a horse in which the legs move in lateral pairs but not simultaneously: Playing the video in slow motion catches each footfall in the horse's rack.

2. (of horses) to move in a rack: a group of mustangs racking at top speed.

1. a group of drifting clouds: The first rays of dawn struggle to pierce the dreary rack of storm clouds.

2. be driven or moved, as a cloud, before the wind: a wispy train of clouds racking to our west.

1. to draw off (wine, cider, etc.) from the lees: How recently was this wine racked into a clean barrel?

1. the rib section of a foresaddle of lamb, mutton, pork, or sometimes veal: a roasted rack of lamb with potatoes and asparagus.
2. (formerly) the neck portion of mutton, pork, or veal.

1. a framework for holding, carrying, or displaying a specific load or object
2. a toothed bar designed to engage a pinion to form a mechanism that will interconvert rotary and rectilinear motions
3. a framework fixed to an aircraft for carrying bombs, rockets, etc
4. an instrument of torture that stretched the body of the victim
5. a cause or state of mental or bodily stress, suffering, etc; anguish; torment (esp in the phrase on the rack)
6. a woman's breasts
7. US and Canadian (in pool, snooker, etc)
• the triangular frame used to arrange the balls for the opening shot
• the balls so grouped

8. to torture on the rack
9. to cause great stress or suffering to
10. to strain or shake (something) violently, as by great physical force
11. to place or arrange in or on a rack
12. to move (parts of machinery or a mechanism) using a toothed rack
13. to raise (rents) exorbitantly; rack-rent
14. to strain in mental effort, esp to remember something or to find the solution to a problem

1. destruction; wreck (obsolete except in the phrase go to rack and ruin)

1. another word for single-foot, a gait of the horse

1. a group of broken clouds moving in the wind

2. (of clouds) to be blown along by the wind

1. to clear (wine, beer, etc) as by siphoning it off from the dregs
2. to fill a container with (beer, wine, etc)

1. the neck or rib section of mutton, pork, or veal

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