Rack vs. Wrack — What's the Difference?

A framework, typically with rails, bars, hooks, or pegs, for holding or storing things

Variant spelling of rack (sense 1 of the verb)

A cogged or toothed bar or rail engaging with a wheel or pinion, or using pegs to adjust the position of something

Any of a number of coarse brown seaweeds which grow on the shoreline, frequently each kind forming a distinct band in relation to high- and low-water marks. Many have air bladders for buoyancy.

An instrument of torture consisting of a frame on which the victim was stretched by turning rollers to which the wrists and ankles were tied.

Variant spelling of rack

A triangular structure for positioning the balls in pool.

A wrecked ship; a shipwreck.

A woman's breasts

Destruction or ruin. Used chiefly in the phrase wrack and ruin.

A set of antlers

Wreckage, especially of a ship cast ashore.

A bed.

Chiefly British Violent destruction of a building or vehicle.

A horse's 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.

Seaweed that has been cast ashore or dried.

A mass of high, thick, fast-moving clouds

Any of various brown algae, especially rockweed or kelp.

A joint of meat, typically lamb, that includes the front ribs.

Variant of rack3.

Cause extreme pain, anguish, or distress to

To cause the ruin of; wreck.

Place in or on a rack

To be wrecked.

Move by a rack and pinion.

Variant of rack1.

Raise (rent) above a fair or normal amount.

Vengeance; revenge; persecution; punishment; consequence; trouble.

(of a horse) move with a rack gait.

Ruin; destruction.

Go away

The remains; a wreck.

(of a cloud) be driven before the wind

(archaic) Remnant from a shipwreck as washed ashore, or the right to claim such items.

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

Any marine vegetation cast up on shore, especially seaweed of the family Fucaceae.

A framework or stand in or on which to hold, hang, or display various articles

Weeds, vegetation or rubbish floating on a river or pond.

(Games) A triangular frame for arranging billiard or pool balls at the start of a game.

A high flying cloud; a rack.

A receptacle for livestock feed.

To execute vengeance; avenge.

A frame for holding bombs in an aircraft.

To worry; tease; torment.

A bunk or bed.

To wreck, especially a ship.

Sleep

Alternative form of rack

A toothed bar that meshes with a gearwheel, pinion, or other toothed machine part.

A thin, flying cloud; a rack.

A state of intense anguish.

Wreck; ruin; destruction.

A cause of intense anguish.

Any marine vegetation cast up on the shore, especially plants of the genera Fucus, Laminaria, and Zostera, which are most abundant on northern shores.

An instrument of torture on which the victim's body was stretched.

Coarse seaweed of any kind.

A pair of antlers.

To rack; to torment.

Vulgar Slang A woman's breasts.

To wreck.

A fast, flashy, four-beat gait of a horse in which each foot touches the ground separately and at equal intervals.

Dried seaweed especially that cast ashore

A thin mass of wind-driven clouds.

The destruction or collapse of something;

Variant of wrack1.

Growth of marine vegetation especially of the large forms such as rockweeds and kelp

Variant of wrack2.

Smash or break forcefully;

A wholesale rib cut of lamb or veal between the shoulder and the loin.

A retail rib cut of lamb or veal, prepared for roasting or for rib chops.

The neck and upper spine of mutton, pork, or veal.

To place (billiard balls, for example) in a rack.

Also wrack To cause great physical or mental suffering to

To torture by means of the rack.

To go or move at a rack.

To drain (wine or cider) from the dregs.

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.

(historical) A device, incorporating a ratchet, used to torture victims by stretching them beyond their natural limits.

(nautical) A piece or frame of wood, having several sheaves, through which the running rigging passes.

A bunk.

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.

(mechanical engineering) 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.

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.

A climber's set of equipment for setting up protection and belays, consisting of runners, slings, carabiners, nuts, Friends, etc.

A grate on which bacon is laid.

(algebra) A set with a distributive binary operation whose result is unique.

A thousand pounds (£1,000), especially if proceeds of crime

Thin, flying, broken clouds, or any portion of floating vapour in the sky.

A fast amble.

(obsolete) A wreck; destruction.

To place in or hang on a rack.

To torture (someone) on the rack.

To cause (someone) to suffer pain.

(figurative) 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 in the testicles.

(firearms) To (manually) load (a round of ammunition) from the magazine or belt into firing position in an automatic or semiautomatic firearm.

(firearms) To move the slide bar on a shotgun in order to chamber the next round.

(mining) To wash (metals, ore, etc.) on a rack.

(nautical) To bind together, as two ropes, with cross turns of yarn, marline, etc.

(structural engineering) To tend to shear a structure (that is, force it to bend, lean, or move in different directions at different points).

To drive; move; go forward rapidly; stir.

To fly, as vapour or broken clouds.

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

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

Same as Arrack.

The neck and spine of a fore quarter of veal or mutton.

A wreck; destruction.

Thin, flying, broken clouds, or any portion of floating vapor in the sky.

A fast amble.

An instrument or frame used for stretching, extending, retaining, or displaying, something.

An instrument for bending a bow.

A bar with teeth on its face, or edge, to work with those of a wheel, pinion, or worm, which is to drive it or be driven by it.

That which is extorted; exaction.

To fly, as vapor or broken clouds.

To amble fast, causing a rocking or swaying motion of the body; to pace; - said of a horse.

To draw off from the lees or sediment, as wine.

To extend by the application of force; to stretch or strain; specifically, to stretch on the rack or wheel; to torture by an engine which strains the limbs and pulls the joints.

To torment; to torture; to affect with extreme pain or anguish.

To stretch or strain, in a figurative sense; hence, to harass, or oppress by extortion.

To wash on a rack, as metals or ore.

To bind together, as two ropes, with cross turns of yarn, marline, etc.

Framework for holding objects

Rib section of a forequarter of veal or pork or especially lamb or mutton

The destruction or collapse of something;

An instrument of torture that stretches or disjoints or mutilates victims

A support for displaying various articles;

A rapid gait of a horse in which each foot strikes the ground separately

Go at a rack;

Stretch to the limits;

Put on a rack and pinion;

Obtain by coercion or intimidation;

Run before a gale

Fly in high wind

Draw off from the lees;

Torment emotionally or mentally

Work on a rack;

Seize together, as of parallel ropes of a tackle in order to prevent running through the block

Torture on the rack