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on the rack

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rack 1   (rāk)   
n.  

    1. A framework or stand in or on which to hold, hang, or display various articles: a trophy rack; a rack for baseball bats in the dugout; a drying rack for laundry.

    2. Games A triangular frame for arranging billiard or pool balls at the start of a game.

    3. A receptacle for livestock feed.

    4. A frame for holding bombs in an aircraft.

    5. A state of intense anguish.

    6. A cause of intense anguish.

  2. Slang A bunk; a bed.

  3. A toothed bar that meshes with a gearwheel, pinion, or other toothed machine part.

    1. A state of intense anguish.

    2. A cause of intense anguish.

  5. An instrument of torture on which the victim's body was stretched.

  6. A pair of antlers.

tr.v.   racked, rack·ing, racks

  1. To place (billiard balls, for example) in a rack.

  2. To cause great physical or mental suffering to: Pain racked his entire body. See Synonyms at afflict.

  3. To torture by means of the rack.

Phrasal Verb(s):
rack out Slang To go to sleep or get some sleep.
rack up Informal To accumulate or score: rack up points.

Idiom(s):
on the rackUnder great stress.

[Middle English rakke, probably from Middle Dutch rec, framework; see reg- in Indo-European roots.]
rack'er n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Idioms & Phrases

on the rack

Under great stress, as in I was on the rack while I waited for the test results. This expression, alluding to a medieval instrument of torture to which the victim was fastened and stretched, has been used figuratively since the late 1500s. Shakespeare had it in The Merchant of Venice (3:2): "Let me choose, for as I am I live upon the rack."

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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