rack

RACK, noun [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 a king to the rack and makes him as miserable as it does the meanest subject. 3. Any instrument for stretching or extending any thing; as a rack for bending a bow. 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. RACK, noun [Eng. crag.] The neck and spine of a fore quarter of veal or mutton. [The two foregoing words are doubtless from one original.] RACK, noun [See Reek.] Properly, vapor; hence, thin flying broken clouds, or any portion of floating vapor in the sky. The winds in the upper region, which move the clouds above, which we call the rack - The great globe itself, yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, and, like this unsubstantial pageant, faded, leave not a rack behind. It is disputed however, whether rack in this passage should not be wreck. RACK, noun [for arrack. See Arrack.] Among the Tartars, a spirituous liquor made of mare's milk which has become sour and is then distilled. RACK, verb intransitive [See the noun.] 1. Properly, to steam; to rise, as vapor. [See Reek, which is the word used.] 2. To fly, as vapor or broken clouds. RACK, verb transitive [from the noun.] 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. 2. To torment; to torture; to affect with extreme pain or anguish; as racked with deep despair. 3. To harass by exaction. The landlords there shamefully rack their tenants. 4. To stretch; to strain vehemently; to wrest; as, to rack and stretch Scripture; to rack invention. The wisest among the heathens racked their wits - 5. To stretch; to extend. RACK, verb transitive 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.