Word Confusion: Rack versus Wrack

Plural for the noun: racks
Gerund: racking

Third person present verb: racks
Past tense or past participle: racked
Present participle: racking

Plural for the noun: wracks
Gerund: wracking

Third person present verb: wracks
Past tense or past participle: wracked
Present participle: wracking

• A stack of digital effects units for a guitar or other instrument
• Overhead shelf on a bus, train, or plane
• Vertically barred arrangement for holding animal fodder

A cogged or toothed bar or rail engaging with a wheel or pinion, or using pegs to

Adjust the position of something

[North America] Set of antlers

[North America; slang] Woman’s breasts

[North America; informal] Bed

[Historical] Instrument of torture consisting of a frame on which the victim was stretched by turning rollers to which the wrists and ankles were tied

Triangular structure for positioning balls in pool

• [British] A single game of snooker
  • The balls as set up

Lift used to repair vehicles

A fast, showy, four-beat gait in which both hoofs on either side in turn are lifted almost simultaneously, and all four hoofs are off the ground together at certain moments ²

Large cut of meat, typically lamb ³

• The neck and spine of a forequarter of veal, pork, or especially mutton
• The rib section of a lamb’s forequarters used for chops or as a roast

[Also wrack] Mass of high, thick, fast-moving clouds ⁴

Verb, intransitive:
[Of a horse] Move with a rack gait ²

[Of a cloud; also wrack] Be driven before the wind ⁵

• To fly or scud in high wind

To become forced out of shape or out of plumb ⁷

Verb, transitive:
[Also wrack] Cause extreme physical or mental pain to ¹, ^1a

• [Also wrack] Subject to extreme stress
• [Historical; also wrack] Torture someone on the rack
• To stretch or strain violently

Place in or on a rack Never, ever use wrack.

• To place pool balls in a rack

[Chiefly archaic] Raise rent above a fair or normal amount

• To harass or oppress with high rents or extortions

To seize as parallel ropes of a tackle together

Draw off wine, beer, etc., from the sediment in the barrel ⁶

Work or treat material on a rack

Work by a rack-and-pinion or worm so as to extend or contract

[Also wrack] Cause extreme physical or mental pain to someone, something

• Dried seaweed

[Archaic] Wrecked ship, shipwreck ²

• Wreckage
• [Dialect] Violent destruction of a structure, machine, or vehicle
• A remnant of something destroyed ³

Verb, intransitive:
[Of a cloud; also rack] Be driven before the wind

Verb, transitive:
[Also rack] Cause extreme physical or mental pain to someone, something

[Also rack] Subject to extreme stress

To utterly ruin ⁴

Fill up that hay rack for the cows.

Arnie’s woman is kinda bossy, but she’s got a nice rack.

Hang the spice rack on that wall.

Geez, I gotta clean out this magazine rack.

Yum! Rack of lamb!

Place the cake on a wire rack to cool.

“Most of her clothes are off the rack,” she sniffed.

There was a thin moon, a rack of cloud in the sky that night.

Rack-and-pinion steering is one of the essential components of a car.

“He’s really let this place go to rack and ruin,” he muttered.

Verb, intransitive:
Ideally, you should train a horse to rack when they’re young.

Dark clouds racked across the sky.

“Three glorious suns, each one a perfect sun, not separated with the racking clouds, but severed in a pale, clear-shining sky.”
– Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part 3

He racked the camera.

Verb, transitive:
He was racked with guilt.

The shoes were racked neatly beneath the dresses.

The wine is racked off into large oak casks.

He’s racked up our rent!

Rack up the balls.

The legality of racking a prisoner was questioned in 1628.

“He’s really let this place go to wrack and ruin,” he muttered.

Verb, intransitive:
Dark clouds wracked across the sky.

“Three glorious suns, each one a perfect sun, not separated with the wracking clouds, but severed in a pale, clear-shining sky.”
– Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part 3

Verb, transitive:
He was wracked with guilt.

He’s really having to wrack his brains for that answer!

The legality of wracking a prisoner was questioned in 1628.

1. Middle English from the Middle Dutch rec and the Middle Low German rek meaning horizontal bar or shelf, probably from recken meaning to stretch, reach and the most likely source for 1a.
2. Its first known use was in 1580 and is of unknown origin.
3. Its first known use was in 1570 and is of unknown origin.
4. 14th century with the Middle English meaning of rain cloud or rapid movement denoting a rush or collision, probably of Scandinavian origin. Compare it with the Norwegian and Swedish dialect rak meaning wreckage, from reka meaning to drive.
5. Its first known use was in 1590.
6. Late 15th century from the Provençal arracar, from raca stems and husks of grapes, dregs.
7. Its first known use was in the 15th century.

1. Its first known use was in the 14th century as wrak from the Middle Dutch or the Middle Low German and akin to the Old English wræc as something driven by the sea.
2. Late Middle English from the Middle Dutch wrak and related to wreak and wreck.
3. Its first known use was in the 14th century from the Old English wræc meaning misery, or punishment, or something driven by the sea. It’s akin to the Old English wrecan meaning to drive or punish.
4. Its first known use was in 1562.