# racks

/ˈɹæks/ (US) · /ɹˈæks/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/racks
Updated: 2026-08-08

## Senses

### 2. to cause pain or distress

verb · CEFR C1 · Literary

to cause someone to feel great physical or mental pain.

For teachers: to subject someone to intense suffering, torture, or distress. Transitive verb; often used in the passive voice.

- He was racked by guilt after he lied to his best friend.
- The patient was racked by violent coughing fits that left him exhausted and unable to speak for hours.

### 3. to think very hard

verb · CEFR B2

to try very hard to remember something or solve a problem.

For teachers: to strain or exert one's mental faculties to the utmost. Almost exclusively used in the idiom 'rack one's brains'.

- She racks her brains every time she tries to remember her old password.
- The detective spent the entire night racking his brains, trying to find a single inconsistency in the suspect's alibi.

## Examples

- She looked through the racks of clothes to find a blue dress.
- The server placed the clean plates onto the drying racks before starting the next shift.
- The warehouse was filled with towering metal racks that reached the ceiling, each one meticulously labeled with a unique inventory code for the automated retrieval system.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.