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racks

/ɹæks/
Dictionary

noun

  • A series of one or more shelves, stacked one above the other
  • Any of various kinds of frame for holding luggage or other objects on a vehicle or vessel.
  • A device, incorporating a ratchet, used to torture victims by stretching them beyond their natural limits.
  • A piece or frame of wood, having several sheaves, through which the running rigging passes.
  • A bunk.
  • (by extension) Sleep.
  • A distaff.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • A cranequin, a mechanism including a rack, pinion and pawl, providing both mechanical advantage and a ratchet, used to bend and cock a crossbow.
  • A set of antlers (as on deer, moose or elk).
  • A cut of meat involving several adjacent ribs.

    "I bought a rack of lamb at the butcher's yesterday."

  • A hollow triangle used for aligning the balls at the start of a game.
  • A woman's breasts.
  • A friction device for abseiling, consisting of a frame with five or more metal bars, around which the rope is threaded.

    "abseil rack"

  • 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."

  • A grate on which bacon is laid.
  • That which is extorted; exaction.
  • A set with a distributive binary operation whose result is unique.
  • A thousand pounds (£1,000), especially such proceeds of crime

verb

  • To place in or hang on a rack.
  • To torture (someone) on the rack.
  • To cause (someone) to suffer pain.
  • To stretch or strain; to harass, or oppress by extortion.
  • To put the balls into the triangular rack and set them in place on the table.
  • To strike a male in the testicles.
  • To (manually) load (a round of ammunition) from the magazine or belt into firing position in an automatic or semiautomatic firearm.
  • To move the slide bar on a shotgun in order to chamber the next round.
  • To wash (metals, ore, etc.) on a rack.
  • To bind together, as two ropes, with cross turns of yarn, marline, etc.
  • (structural engineering) Tending to shear a structure (that is, force it to move in different directions at different points).

    "Post-and-lintel construction racks easily."

Synonyms:rack upshear

verb

  • To stretch a person's joints.

verb

  • To drive; move; go forward rapidly; stir
  • To fly, as vapour or broken clouds

verb

  • To clarify, and thereby deter further fermentation of, beer, wine or cider by draining or siphoning it from the dregs.

noun

  • A fast amble.

verb

  • (of a horse) To amble fast, causing a rocking or swaying motion of the body; to pace.

noun

  • A wreck; destruction.

noun

  • A young rabbit, or its skin.

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