rack (5)

[For wreck (q. v.).] Wreck, ruin, destruction; now used only in the phrases to go to rack, to go to rack and ruin. răck (6), s. [Either for rock, v., or connected with rack (5), s.] IMG:content-0157.png:[blocks in formation] I. Ordinary Language: 1. Literally: (1) To stretch, to strain. (2) To stretch or strain on the rack; to put to the rack; to torture with the rack. "He was racked and miserably tormented, to the intent he should either change his opinion or confe e other of his profe ion."- Fox : Table of French Martyrs (an. 1551). (3) To place on or in a rack or frame; as, to rack bottles. 2. Figuratively : †(1) To stretch, to heighten, to exaggerate. "What we have we prize not to the worth, Whiles we enjoy it; but being lack'd and lost, Why, then we rack the value." Shakesp.: Much Ado about Nothing , iv. 1. (2) To strain, to stretch, to worry, to puzzle; as, to rack one's brains. (3) To wrest, to distort, to strain, to pervert. " Racking and stretching Scripture further than by God was meant."- Hooker : Eccles. Polity. (4) To raise to the highest or uttermost point; as, to rack rents. (5) To hara or oppre by exacting exce ive rents. ( Dryden : Hind and Panther , iii. 917.) (6) To oppre by exaction generally. "The Commons hast thou racked ." Shakesp.: Henry VI., Pt . II ., i. 3. (7) To torture; to affect with extreme pain, torment, or anguish. ( Milton : P. R. , iii. 203.) II. Mining : To wash on the rack. [RACK (2), s., II. 4.] To rack a tackle : Naut.: To bind together two ropes of a tackle to retain it at a tension and prevent the ropes reeving back through the blocks. răck (2), v. i. [RACK (5).8.] To fly, as vapor or light, floating clouds. ( Scott: Rokeby, i. 1.)