RACK, n. [Eng. to reach. See Reach and Break.]

1. An engine of torture, used for extorting confessions from criminals or suspected persons. The rack is entirely unknown in free countries.
2. Torture; extreme pain; anguish. A fit of the stone puts king to the rack and makes him as miserable as it does the meanest subject. – Temple.
3. Any instrument for stretching or extending any thing; as, a rack for bending a bow. – Temple.
4. A grate on which bacon is laid.
5. A wooden frame of open work in which hay is laid for horses and cattle for feeding.
6. The frame of bones of an animal; a skeleton. We say, a rack of bones.
7. A frame of timber on a ship's bowsprit. – Mar. Dict.

The neck and spine of a fore quarter of veal or mutton. [The two foregoing words are doubtless from one original.]

Properly, vapor; hence, thin flying broken clouds, or portion of floating vapor in the sky. The winds in the upper region, which move the clouds above, which we call the rack. – Bacon. The great globe itself, / Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, / And, like this unsubstantial pageant, faded, / Leave not a rack behind. – Shak. It is disputed, however, whether rack in this passage should not be wreck.

Among the Tartars, a spirituous liquor made of mare's milk which has become sour and is then distilled. – Encyc.

In machinery, a rectilineal sliding piece, with teeth cut on its edge for working with a wheel.

1. Properly, to steam; to rise, as vapor. [See Reek, which is the word used.]
2. To fly, as vapor or broken clouds. – Shak.

1. To torture; to stretch or strain on the rack or wheel; as, to rack a criminal or suspected person, to extort a confession of his guilt, or compel him to betray his accomplices. – Dryden.
2. To torment; to torture; to affect with extreme pain or anguish; as, racked with deep despair. – Milton.
3. To harass by exaction. The landlords there shamefully rack their tenants. – Spenser.
4. To stretch; to strain vehemently; to wrest; as, to rack and stretch Scripture; to rack invention. Hooker. Waterland. The wisest among the heathens racked their wits. – Tillotson.
5. To stretch; to extend. – Shak.

To draw off from the lees; to draw off, as pure liquor from its sediment; as, to rack cider or wine; to rack off liquor. – Bacon.

1. Same as Arrack.
2. The neck and spine of a fore quarter of veal or mutton.
3. A wreck; destruction.
   
   
   [Obs., except in a few phrases.]

   Rack and ruin, destruction; utter ruin. [Colloq.] -- To go to rack, to perish; to be destroyed. [Colloq.] "All goes to rack." Pepys.

4. Thin, flying, broken clouds, or any portion of floating vapor in the sky.
   
   
   Shak.

   The winds in the upper region, which move the clouds above, which we call the rack, . . . pass without noise. Bacon.

   And the night rack came rolling up. C. Kingsley.

5. To fly, as vapor or broken clouds.
6. To amble fast, causing a rocking or swaying motion of the body] to pace; -- said of a horse.
   
   
   Fuller.
7. A fast amble.
8. To draw off from the lees or sediment, as wine.
   
   

   It is in common practice to draw wine or beer from the lees (which we call racking), whereby it will clarify much the sooner. Bacon.

   Rack vintage, wine cleansed and drawn from the lees. Cowell.

9. An instrument or frame used for stretching, extending, retaining, or displaying, something.
   
   
   Specifically: (a)
10. To extend by the application of force; to stretch or strain; specifically, to stretch on the rack or wheel; to torture by an engine which strains the limbs and pulls the joints.
    
    

    He was racked and miserably tormented. Foxe.

11. A bar with teeth on its face, or edge, to work with those of a wheel, pinion, or worm, which is to drive it or be driven by it.
12. To torment; to torture; to affect with extreme pain or anguish.
    
    

    Vaunting aloud but racked with deep despair. Milton.

13. That which is extorted; exaction.
    
    
    [Obs.] Sir E. Sandys.

    Mangle rack. (Mach.) See under Mangle, n. -- Rack block. (Naut.) See def. 1 (f), above. -- Rack lashing, a lashing or binding where the rope is tightened, and held tight by the use of a small stick of wood twisted around. -- Rack rail (Railroads), a toothed rack, laid as a rail, to afford a hold for teeth on the driving wheel of a locomotive for climbing steep gradients, as in ascending a mountain. -- Rack saw, a saw having wide teeth. -- Rack stick, the stick used in a rack lashing. -- To be on the rack, to suffer torture, physical or mental. -- To live at rack and manger, to live on the best at another's expense. [Colloq.] -- To put to the rack, to subject to torture; to torment.

    A fit of the stone puts a king to the rack, and makes him as miserable as it does the meanest subject. Sir W. Temple.

14. To stretch or strain, in a figurative sense; hence, to harass, or oppress by extortion.
    
    

    The landlords there shamefully rack their tenants. Spenser.

    They [landlords] rack their rents an ace too high. Gascoigne.

    Grant that I may never rack a Scripture simile beyond the true intent thereof. Fuller.

    Try what my credit can in Venice do;
    That shall be racked even to the uttermost. Shak.

15. To wash on a rack, as metals or ore.
16. To bind together, as two ropes, with cross turns of yarn, marline, etc.
    
    

    To rack one's brains or wits, to exert them to the utmost for the purpose of accomplishing something.

    Syn. -- To torture; torment; rend; tear.