Baciborskia 
Kaciborskia (ras-i-bor'ski-a), n. [NL. (Ber- 
lese), < Knnjlinrxlci, a Polish botanist.] A genus 
of myxomycetous fungi, giving name to the 
family Bririliorttlciticeee. 
Racibbrskiacese (ras-i-bor-ski-a'se-e), n. pi. 
[NL., < BaciborsMa + -accee.J A small family 
of myxomyeetous fungi, taking its name from 
the genus Kaciborskia, and having the peridium 
naked and distinctly stipitate, and the capil- 
litium violaceous. 
racily (ra'si-li), adv. [< racy + -Z</2.] In a 
racy manner; piquantly; spicily. 
racinet, [ME.; < OF. ratine, rachine, F. ra- 
tine = l?r. racina, razina, root, < ML. as if *radi- 
cina, dim. of L. radix (radic-), root: see radix. 
Cf . race*.'] A root. 
UnlefiUle lust, though It be sote, 
And of alle yvelle the raojne. 
Horn, of the Hose, I. 4881. 
raciness (ra'si-nes), n. [< racy + -ness."] The 
quality of being racy ; peculiarly characteristic 
and piquant flavor or style; spiciness; pun- 
gency. 
racing (ra'sing), n. [Verbal n. of race 1 , .] 
The running of races ; the occupation or busi- 
ness of arranging for or carrying on races, espe- 
cially between horses. 
The Queen [Anne] was fond of racing, and gave her lOOi. 
gold cups to be run for, as now : nay more, she not only 
kept race horses, but ran them in her own name. 
Axlitini, Social Life in Reign of Queen Anne, I. 302. 
racing-bell (ra'sing-bel), n. A grelot or small 
bell given as a prize for a horse-race : such a 
prize was frequent in the sixteenth century. 
Bells of this form exist of silver, from an inch to two 
inches and a half in diameter, with inscriptions and dates. 
racing-bit (ra'siug-bit), n. A light jointed- 
ring bit, the loose rings of which range in size 
from 3 to 6 inches. 
racing-calendar (ra'sing-kaFen-dar), n. A de- 
tailed list of races run or to be run. 
rack 1 (rak), v. t. [Early mod. E. also wrack (by 
confusion with wracfc 1 ) ; not found as a verb 
in ME. or AS., except the secondary forms AS. 
reccan, as below, and ME. raxen, < AS. raxan, 
*racsan, stretch oneself (see rax) ; prob. < MD. 
racken, stretch, reach out, torture, rack, = G. 
racken, stretch, torture; a collateral form of 
AS. reccan (pret. reahte), stretch out, also cor- 
rect, direct, rule, guide, tell, etc. (>ME. rec- 
cheti, stretch, also tell: see retch^ and rack^, 
reckon), = OS. rekkian, stretch, = MD. recken, 
D. rekken = MLG. reken, stretch, = OHG. rec- 
chan, MHG. recken, stretch, extend, = Icel. rek- 
ja, stretch, trace (of. rekkja, strain), = Dan. 
rsekke = Sw. racka, reach, hand, stretch, = 
Goth, "rakjan, in comp. uf-rakjan, stretch out; 
prob. = L. regere, rule, lit. 'stretch out,' 'make 
straight ' (in por-rigere, stretch forth, e-rigerc, 
straighten out, erect, etc. ) (pp. rectus, straight, 
= E. right), = Gr. bpiyuv, stretch, = Lith. razau, 
razyti, stretch, = Skt. / arj, stretch. Akin to 
rake%, reach, extend, but prob. not to rake 1 , nor 
to reach 1 , with which, however, rack 1 has been 
partly confused. The verb and esp. the noun 
rack show great confusion and mixture of 
senses, and complete separation is difficult. 
In some senses the verb is from the noun.] 1. 
To stretch ; stretch out ; strain by force or vio- 
lence ; extend by stretching or straining. 
Which yet they rack higher to foure hundred three- 
score and ten thousand yeares. 
Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 54. 
I know your hearts are like two lutes rack'd up 
To the same pitch. The Slighted M aid, p. 53. (If ares.) 
Suits in love should not, 
Like suits in law, be rack'd from term to term. 
Shirley, Hyde Park, i. 2. 
2. To strain so as to rend ; wrench by strain or 
jar; rend; disintegrate; disjoint: as, a racking 
cough ; to rack a ship to pieces by slanting shot. 
The duke 
Dare no more stretch this finger of mine than he 
Dare rack his own. Shak., M. for M., v. 1. 317. 
3. To torture by violent stretching; stretch on 
a frame by means of a windlass ; subject to the 
punishment of the rack. See racfc 1 , n., 2 (b). 
He was racked and miserably tormented, to the intent 
he should either chaunge his opinion or confesse other of 
his profession. F oxe, A Table of French Martyrs, an. 1551. 
An answer was returned by Lord Killnltagh to the effect 
that "you ought to rack him if you saw cause, and hang 
him if you found reason." Encyc. Brit., XXIII. 486. 
Noblemen were exempt, the vulgar thought, 
From racking, but, since law thinks otherwise, 
I have been put to the rack. 
Browning, Ring and Book, I. 202. 
Hence 4. To put in torment ; affect with great 
pain or distress ; torture in any way ; disturb 
violently. 
4928 
My soul is rack'd till you dissolve my fears. 
ISi-Hii. and Fl. (!), Faithful Friends, i. 1. 
Lord, how my soul is rack'd betwixt the world and thee ! 
Quarles, Emblems, v. 9. 
I will not rack myself with the Thought. 
Stefle, Grief A-la-ilode, v. 1. 
Kinraid was racked with agony from his dangling broken 
leg, and his very life seemed leaving him. 
Mrs. Qaskdl, Sylvia's Lovers, xxxviii. 
5. To strain with anxiety, eagerness, curiosity, 
or the like; subject to strenuous effort or in- 
tense feeling; worry; agitate: as, to rack one's 
invention or memory. 
A barbarous phrase has often made me out of love with 
a good sense ; and doubtful writing hath wracked me be- 
yond my patience. B. Jonson, Discoveries. 
It doth rack my brain why they should stay thus. 
Shirley, Love in a Maze, v. 5. 
6. To stretch or draw out of normal condition or 
relation; strain beyond measure or propriety; 
wrest; warp; distort; exaggerate; overstrain: 
chiefly in figurative uses. 
Albeit this is one of the places that hath been racked, as 
I told you of racking Scriptures. 
Latimer, Sermon of the Plough. 
For it so falls out 
That what we have we prize not to the worth 
While we enjoy it, but, being lack'd and lost, 
Why, then we rack the value. 
Shale., Much Ado, iv. 1. 222. 
Pray, rack not honesty. Fletcher, Loyal Subject, ii. 6. 
Hyperbole is racked to find terms of adoring admiration 
for the queen. WUppU, Ess. and Rev. , II. 28. 
7. To exact or obtain by rapacity ; get or gain 
in excess or wrongfully. See rack-rent. [Ob- 
solete or archaic.] 
Each place abounding with fowle injuries, 
And flld with treasure raekt with robberies. 
Spenser, Mother Hub. Tale, L 1306. 
Why, honest master, here lies all my money, 
The money I ha' rack'd by usury. 
Fletcher (and another), Sea Voyage, i. 1. 
Good for nought but to persuade their lords 
To rack their rents and give o'er housekeeping. 
Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, i. 1. 
8f. To subject to extortion; practise rapacity 
upon ; oppress by exaction. 
The commons hast thou rack'd ; the clergy's bags 
Are lank and lean with thy extortions. 
, Shak., 2 Hen. VI., i. 3. 131. 
Here are no hard Landlords to racke vs with high rents, 
or extorting fines. Copt. John Smith, Works, II. 188. 
9. In mining, to wash on the rack. See rack^, n., 
5 (0- 10. To place on or in a rack or frame 
made for the purpose, either for storage or for 
temporary need, as for draining, drying, or the 
like. 11. To form into or as if into a rack 
or grating; give the appearance of a rack to. 
12. Naut., to seize together with cross-turns, 
as two ropes Racking turns, turns taken alternate- 
ly over and under ropes, to bind them together. To rack 
a tackle, to seize two parts of a tackle together with rope- 
yarn or spun-yarn, so that, if the fall is let go, the strain 
will not be loosened. 
rack 1 (rak), n. [< ME. racke, a rack (for tor- 
ture), rakkc, a straight bar, a rack for hay, a 
framework, rekke, a bar, a framework above a 
manger, a bar, a rack (for torture), later rak, 
rack (as a roost, a frame for dishes, weapons, 
etc.); < MD. racke, D. rak, a rack, = LG. rakk, 
a shelf, = G. rack, a bar, rail, recke, a frame, 
trestle, rack for supporting things, dial, reck, 
scaffold, wooden horse; the lit. sense being 
either (a) active, 'that which stretches,' as an 
appliance for bending a bow, a frame for stretch- 
ing the limbs in torture (rack in this sense also 
involving the sense of 'framework' merely), 
or (6) passive, 'that which is stretched,' hence 
a straight bar (cf. Icel. rakkr, rakr, straight, = 
Sw. rak, straight), a frame of bars (such as the 
grating above a manger), a framework used in 
torture (involving also the orig. active notion 
of 'stretching'), a bar with teeth, a thing ex- 
torted, etc.; from the verb. Cf. G. reckbank, a 
rack (means of torture), < recken, stretch, + 
bank, bench.] If. A bar. 
Hevie rekkes binde to hire fet. 
Early Eng. Poems and Lives of Saints (ed. Furnivall), xv. 
[192. 
2 . A frame or apparatus for stretching or strain- 
ing. Specifically (a) A windlass or winch for bending 
a bow ; the part of the crossbow in which the gaffle moved. 
Halliwett. 
These bows . . . were bent only by a man's immediate 
strength, without the help of any bender or rack. 
Bp. WUkins, Math. Magick. (Latham.) 
(b) An instrument of torture by means of which the limbs 
were pulled in different directions, so that the whole body 
was subjected to a great tension, sufficient sometimes to 
cause the bones to leave their sockets. The form of ap- 
plication of the torture differed at different times. The 
rack consisted essentially of a platform on which the body 
rack 
was hiiil, having at one end a fixed bar to which one pair of 
limbs was fastened, and at the other end a movable bar 
to which the other limbs were fastened, and which conk) 
be forcibly pulled away from the fixed bar or rolled on 
its own axis by means of a windlass* See judicial lortnre, 
under torture. 
Galows and racke. 
Caxton, tr. of Reynard the Fox (ed. Arber), p. 24. 
Take him hence; to the rack with him! Well touse you 
Joint by joint, but we will know his purpose. 
Shak., M. forM., v. 1.313. 
3. Punishment by the rack, or by some similar 
means of torture. 
You have found a Person who would suffer Racks in 
Honour's Cause. Congreve, Way of the World, iv. 13. 
Hence 4. A state of torture or extreme suf- 
fering, physical or mental; great pain; rend- 
ing anxiety ; anguish. See on the rack, below. 
A fit of the stone puts a king to the racfr, anil makes him 
as miserable as it does the meanest subject. 
Sir W. Temple. 
5. A grating or open framework of bars, wires, 
or pegs on or in which articles are arranged or 
deposited: much used in composition, as in 
bottle-racfc, card-racfc, hat-racfc, letter-raefc. etc. 
Specifically (a) A grating on which bacon is laid, (b) 
An open wooden framework placed above a manger or the 
like, in which fodder for horses or cattle is laid. 
From their full racks the generous steeds retire. 
Addison. 
(c) An openwork siding, high and flaring outward, placed 
on a wagon for the conveyance of hay or straw, grain in 
the sheaf, or other light and bulky material, (d) In print- 
ing, an upright framework, with side-cleats or other 
supports, for the storing of cases, of boards or galleys of 
type, etc. : distinguished as case-rack gaUey-rack, etc. (e) 
Naut., a fair-leader for a running rigging. (/) The cob- 
iron of a grate. HaUiweU. (g) A framework for a table 
aboard ship to hold dishes, etc., so as to keep them from 
sliding or falling off : same as fiddle, 2. (A) A frame for 
holding round shot in holes; a shot-rack, (t) In metal., 
an inclined wooden table on which fine ore is washed on a 
small scale. It is one of the various simpler forms of the 
huddle. (J) In woolen-cloth manvf., a frame in a stove or 
room heated by steam-pipes on which the cloth is stretched 
tightly after washing with fullers' earth, (k) In organ- 
building, one of the thin boards, with perforations, which 
support the upper part of the feet of the pipes. 
6. In mack., a straight or very slightly curved 
metallic bar, with teeth on one of its edges, 
adapted to work into the teeth 
of a wheel, pinion, or endless 
screw, for converting a circular 
Rack and Worm. 
Rack and Pinion. 
into a rectilinear motion, or vice versa. If the 
rack is curved, it is called a segment-rack. If the teeth 
are placed on the rack obliquely and it is used with a 
worm instead of a wheel, it forms a rack-and-worm gear; 
in the cut, a is the worm, 6 the rack, and c a friction- 
wheel on which the back of 6 rolls, and which holds 6 in- 
termeshed with a. See also cut under mutilated. 
7. An anglers' creel or fish-basket. 8. A fish- 
weir. 9. A measure of lacework counting 240 
meshes perpendicularly. 10. Reach : as, to 
work by rack of eye (that is, to be guided by 
the eye in working). llf. That which is ex- 
torted; exaction. 
The great rents and racks would be insupportable. 
SirE. Sandys, State of Religion. 
In a high rack, in a high position. HaUiweU. [Prov. 
Eng.] On the rack, on the stretch by or as if by means 
of a rack ; hence, in a state of tension or of torturing pain 
or anxiety. 
I wou'd have him ever to continue upon the Rack of 
Fear and Jealousie. Congreve, Way of the World, ii. 1. 
My Head and Heart are on the Rack about my Son. 
Steele, Conscious Lovers, iv. 1. 
Rack and pinion. See def. 6, above. Rack-and-pin- 
ion jack, a lifting-jack in which power is applied by 
means of a rack and pinion. Rack-and-pinion press, 
a press in which force is transmitted through a pinion to 
a rack connected with the follower. E. H. Knight. 
Rack-cutting machine, a milling-machine for cutting 
the teeth of racks. To live at rack and manger, to 
live sumptuously and recklessly without regard to pecu- 
niary means ; live on the best without reck of payment. 
But while the Palatine was thus busily employ'd, and 
lay with all his sea-horses, unbridl'd, unsaddl'd, at rack 
