Rack

rak, n. an instrument for racking or extending: an engine for stretching the body in order to extort a confe ion, hence ( fig. ) extreme pain, anxiety, or doubt: a framework on which articles are arranged, as hat-rack , plate-rack , letter-rack , .: the grating above a manger for hay: ( mech. ) a straight bar with teeth to work into those of a wheel, pinion, or endle screw, for converting a circular into a rectilinear motion, or vice versâ : ( Scot. ) the course in curling.— v.t. to stretch forcibly: to strain: to stretch on the rack or wheel: to torture: to exhaust: to worry, agitate: to wrest, overstrain: to practise rapacity: to extort: to place in a rack or frame: ( naut. ) to seize together with cro -turns, as two ropes.— n. Rack′er , one who tortures.— adj. Rack′ing , tormenting.— ns. Rack′-rail , a railway having cogs which work into similar cogs on a locomotive; Rack′-rent , an annual rent stretched to the utmost value of the thing rented, exorbitant rent.— v.t. to subject to such rents.— ns. Rack′-rent′er , one who exacts or pays rack-rent; Rack′-stick , a stick for stretching a rope; Rack′-tail , a bent arm in a repeating clock connected with the striking mechanism; Rack′work , a strong bar with cogs to correspond with similar cogs on a wheel, which either moves or is moved by the bar.— Live at rack and manger , to live sumptuously and wastefully; On the rack , stretched upon it: tortured by anxiety; Put to the rack , to put to the torture of the rack: to subject to keen suffering. [The radical sense is to stretch, closely allied to reach (q.v.); cf. Ice. rakkr , straight, Ger. rack , a rail, recken , to stretch.]