Definition of rack

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rack¹    (rk) KEY 

NOUN:

1. 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.
2. Slang A bunk; a bed.
3. A toothed bar that meshes with a gearwheel, pinion, or other toothed machine part.
4. 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.

TRANSITIVE VERB:
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 VERBS:
rack out Slang

To go to sleep or get some sleep.

rack up Informal

To accumulate or score: rack up points.

IDIOM:
on the rack

Under great stress.

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ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English rakke, probably from Middle Dutch rec, framework; see reg- in Indo-European roots

OTHER FORMS:
racker(Noun)