rack

noun25

1. •
   a stand made of bars or flat parts set one above another, for holding things
2. •
   Any of various kinds of frame for holding luggage or other objects on a vehicle or vessel.
3. •
   A grate on which bacon is laid.
4. •
   A cut of meat involving several adjacent ribs.

   • I bought a rack of lamb at the butcher's yesterday.
5. •
   (historical) A device, incorporating a ratchet, used to torture victims by stretching them beyond their natural limits.

   • Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack, / Where men enforced do speak anything. — 1596
6. •
   A set of antlers (as on deer, moose or elk).
7. •
   A hollow triangle used for aligning the balls at the start of a game.
8. •
   A bar with teeth on its face or edge, to work with those of a gearwheel, pinion, or worm, which is to drive or be driven by it.

   • Just beyond that station the first step is encountered and the rack resorted to, taking the line on a gradient of 1 in 9 over a steeply inclined bridge and through a spiral tunnel. — 1950
9. •
   A bar with teeth on its face or edge, to work with a pawl as a ratchet allowing movement in one direction only, used for example in a handbrake or crossbow.
10. •
    (slang, vulgar) A woman's breasts.
11. •
    (slang) A bunk.

    • Chief Stevens approached my rack and repeatedly ordered me to vacate my rack and report to the working party. — 2008
12. •
    A climber's set of equipment for setting up protection and belays, consisting of runners, slings, carabiners, nuts, Friends, etc.

    • I used almost a full rack on the second pitch.
13. •
    A plastic tray used for holding and moving chips.
14. •
    (slang) A thousand dollars, especially if the proceeds are from a crime.
15. •
    (slang) Sleep.

    • Do I have to do this now? Like, I really need to get some rack. — 2009
16. •
    Thin, flying, broken clouds, or any portion of floating vapour in the sky.

    • The winds in the upper region, which move the clouds above, which we call the rack, […] pass without noise. — 1669
17. •
    A friction device for abseiling, consisting of a frame with five or more metal bars, around which the rope is threaded.
18. •
    A piece or frame of wood, having several sheaves, through which the running rigging passes.
19. •
    A cranequin, a mechanism including a rack, pinion and pawl, providing both mechanical advantage and a ratchet, used to bend and cock a crossbow.
20. •
    A distaff.
21. •
    A fast amble.
22. •
    A set with a distributive binary operation whose action on the set is invertible.
23. •
    (no longer used) A wreck; destruction.

    • All goes to rack. — 1665
24. •
    (no longer used) A bone of a horse.

    • The Par quadratum […] Their Use is to bend the Racks of the Loins with a right Motion forward or downward, but when one only acts, it draws the Loins to one Side somewhat downwards. — 1722
25. •
    (no longer used) A young rabbit, or its skin.

    • The skin of a sucker is white, of a quarter, black and white striped, of a rack all black, and of a best all white. — 1879

verb18

1. •
   To place in or hang on a rack.
2. •
   To torture (someone) on the rack.

   • He was racked and miserably tormented. — 1563
3. •
   To cause (someone) to suffer pain.

   • Vaunting aloud but racked with deep despair. — 1667
4. •
   (figurative) To stretch or strain; to harass, or oppress by extortion.

   • Try what my credit can in Venice do; / That shall be racked even to the uttermost. — 1596
5. •
   To put the balls into the triangular rack and set them in place on the table.
6. •
   To (manually) load (a round of ammunition) from the magazine or belt into firing position in an automatic or semiautomatic firearm.
7. •
   To move the slide bar on a shotgun in order to chamber the next round.
8. •
   To take that which belongs to another, without regard of right or permission.
9. •
   (slang) To shoplift (especially in a megastore), often by taking off of a rack.

   • He racked three boxes of gum!
10. •
    To clarify, and thereby deter further fermentation of, beer, wine or cider by draining or siphoning it from the dregs.

    • It is in common practice to draw wine or beer from the lees (which we call racking), whereby it will clarify much the sooner. — 1627
11. •
    To tend to shear a structure (that is, force it to bend, lean, or move in different directions at different points).

    • Post-and-lintel construction racks easily.
12. •
    (slang) To strike in the testicles.
13. •
    To amble fast, causing a rocking or swaying motion of the body; to pace.

    • The other two (only racking, no thorough-paced protestants) watched their opportunity to run away — 1655
14. •
    To drive; move; go forward rapidly; stir.
15. •
    To fly, as vapour or broken clouds.
16. •
    To bind together, as two ropes, with cross turns of yarn, marline, etc.
17. •
    To wash (metals, ore, etc.) on a rack.
18. •
    (no longer used) To alternately concatenate two words to magical effect.

    • Foꝛ when we heare one racke the name of God,/Abiure the scriptures, and his Sauiour Chꝛist... — 1589

noun1

1. •
   Initialism of risk-aware consensual kink.