Definition of "rack"

Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack, / Where men enforced do speak anything.

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene ii]

During the troubles of the fifteenth century, a rack was introduced into the Tower, and was occasionally used under the plea of political necessity.

1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 1, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans

Chief Stevens approached my rack and repeatedly ordered me to vacate my rack and report to the working party.

2008, Byron L. Smith, Prescription Music, page 33

By the time I had unpacked my sea bag, made my rack, and finished a good long hot shower, it was late in the evening.

2010, Herb Brewer, Chronicles of a Marine Rifleman: Vietnam, 1965-1966, page 171

I took off my helmet, sat it gently down at the head of my rack on the wooden deck, plopped my butt down on my rack again, and began taking off my stateside assbusting boots.

2016, Cpl. Osborn R. E, Like Killing Rats

Do I have to do this now? Like, I really need to get some rack.

2009 December 18, 1:00:07 from the start, in Avatar, spoken by Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), 20th Century Fox

Just beyond that station the first step is encountered and the rack resorted to, taking the line on a gradient of 1 in 9 over a steeply inclined bridge and through a spiral tunnel.

1950 November, H. P. White, “The Furka-Oberalp Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 767

The ladder-type Riggenbach rack is the one in use on both systems.

1960 December, 'Voyageur', “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 750

He was racked and miserably tormented.

1563 March 30, John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […]

As the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt later recalled, his father, Henry VII's jewel-house keeper Henry Wyatt, had been racked on the orders of Richard III, who had sat there and watched.

2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 228

Vaunting aloud but racked with deep despair.

1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,

Try what my credit can in Venice do; / That shall be racked even to the uttermost.

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene i]

The landlords there most shamefully rack their tenants.

1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […]; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809,

Grant that I may never rack a Scripture simile beyond the true intent thereof

1645, Thomas Fuller, Good Thoughts in Bad Times

Bike7125 raises a great point suggesting that cups could have been recommended "optional" equipment in school PE. I never got racked by a baseball or softball, but we did have a gym teacher, who insisted on a weekly session of a "cruelty sport" called bombardment. The idea was to throw basketballs at a line of guys, and try to hit them. (Guess where most gym bullys aimed!)

1999 November 2, Squad Leader, “CUPS Required for Gym Class?”, in alt.support.jock-strap‎ (Usenet)

The racking strength of a wall system is defined in terms of its ability to resist horizon­tal inplane shear forces. The shear, or racking, forces which act on wail systems arise primarily from wind.

1977, Roger L. Tuomi, David S. Gromala, “Racking Strength of Walls”, in USDA Forest Service Research Paper‎, number FPL 301

The winds in the upper region, which move the clouds above, which we call the rack, […] pass without noise.

1669, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum or A Natural History in ten Centuries, page 32

And the night rack came rolling up.

1851, Charles Kingsley, Three Fishers

Sometime we see a cloud that's dragonish ... That which is now a horse ... The rack dislimns, and makes it indistinct

c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene xiv]

It is in common practice to draw wine or beer from the lees (which we call racking), whereby it will clarify much the sooner.

1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […]

The other two (only racking, no thorough-paced protestants) watched their opportunity to run awayThe spelling has been modernized.

1655, Thomas Fuller, edited by James Nichols, The Church History of Britain, […], new edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [James Nichols] for Thomas Tegg and Son, […], published 1837

All goes to rack.

1665 September 19 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “September 9th, 1665”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume V, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1895

Now, sir, you would say a skin is a skin, we say it is a ' whole,' or a 'half,' or a 'quarter,' or a 'rack,' or a 'sucker. Suckers are skins of infant rabbits, and of little value. Eight racks are equal to one whole.

1869 February 13, “Rabbit Skin”, in All the Year Round, page 247

The skin of a sucker is white, of a quarter, black and white striped, of a rack all black, and of a best all white.

1879, Ure's Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, page 380

Those would be of different shades of colour according to the time of year at which they were produced, those bred about May-day undergoing no change from their white colour, but from a white rack become a whole skin; […]

1882, Bees, rabbits, and pigeons; how to breed and how to rear them

Rabbit skins are sorted into wholes, halves, quarters, racks, and suckers, or very small skins.

1892, Henry Poland, Fur-bearing Animals in Nature and in Commerce, page 289

If it was my officers wanted a stone jar of rack or a dozen of bottled ale, I might manage 'em, but I'm nowhere with sacks.

1907, George Manville Fenn, Trapped by Malays: A Tale of Bayonet and Kris, page 347