The Collaborative International Dictionary
Rack \Rack\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Racked (r[a^]kt); p. pr. &
vb. n. Racking.] [See Rack that which stretches, or
Rock, v.]
To amble fast, causing a rocking or swaying motion of the
body; to pace; -- said of a horse.
--Fuller.
Racking \Rack"ing\, n. (Naut.) Spun yarn used in racking ropes.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (cx roofing English) A method of asphalt shingle application, whereby shingle courses are applied vertically, up the roof rather than laterally across and up. 2 (cx nautical English) spun yarn used in racking ropes 3 (cx brewing English) The process of clarifying, and thereby deterring further fermentation of, beer, wine or cider by draining or siphoning it from the dregs. vb. (present participle of rack English)
WordNet
adj. causing great physical or mental suffering; "a wrenching pain" [syn: wrenching]
Wikipedia
Racking, often referred to as Soutirage or Soutirage traditionnel (meaning racking in French), also filtering or fining, is a method in wine production of moving wine from one barrel to another using gravity rather than a pump, which can be disruptive to a wine. The process is also known as Abstich in German and travaso in Italian.
Alexis Lichine's Encyclopedia of Wines and Spirits defines racking as "siphoning wine or beer off the lees (in the case of wine) or trub (in the case of beer), into a new, clean barrel or other vessel." Racking allows clarification and aids in stabilization. Wine that is allowed to age on the lees often develops "off-tastes." A racking hose or tube is used and can be attached to a racking cane to make the task easier. The racking process is repeated several times during the aging of wine.
Racking is the process of siphoning wine or beer off lees into a new, clean barrel.
Racking may also refer to:
- Racking (graffiti), the stealing of graffiti supplies
- Racking bend, a knot for joining two ropes of different diameter
- Racking, in horseriding, a type of ambling gait
Usage examples of "racking".
That impression, however, he desired to deepen, and whilst Armand was worrying his brain to find a plausible excuse for going away, de Batz was racking his to find one for keeping him here.
However petty these activities may have appeared to outsiders, for Diefenbaker such occasions were a necessary relief from the racking, perpetual burden which the prime ministership lays on a man.
I kept at it until midnight, concentrating on the bars around 6th and Hill, talking up barflies, buying them drinks, racking up booze rebop and a couple of tips on abortion mills that almost sounded legit.
McGuire found himself as he tumbled from his car and sat upon the depot platform, torn by a spasm of that hollow, racking cough so familiar to San Antonian ears.
English, racking one word till its joints be pulled asunder, and squeezing the next all a-heap as the Inquisitors do heretics in their banca cava?
And that safety was illusory for the racking jars of the spatial see-saw might disintegrate La Cucaracha in seconds.
Numbers of all diseased--all maladies Of ghastly spasm, or racking torture, qualms Of heart-sick agony, all feverous kinds, Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs, Intestine stone and ulcer, colic pangs, Demoniac frenzy, moping melancholy, And moon-struck madness, pining atrophy, Marasmus, and wide-wasting pestilence, Dropsies and asthmas, and joint-racking rheums.
Harry, racking his brains to remember when Dumbledore had told him this, but now that he came to think of it, he was unable to recall Dumbledore ever telling him what Slughorn would be teaching.
Men, as a general rule, do not ask for anything more, and they are right in not racking their brain for the sake of being convinced that they are the dupes of external appearance.
It swam englobed in blind mist, with the pan ice rattling and racking along its sides.
Instead blaring screams of mammoths echoed off hard, icy walls, grating on the ears, and racking on the nerves.
But what racking pains, on the other hand, arise from gouts, gravels, megrims, toothaches, rheumatisms, where the injury to the animal machinery is either small or incurable?
John Rivers -- pure-lived, conscientious, zealous as he was -- had not yet found that peace of God which passeth all understanding: he had no more found it, I thought, than had I with my concealed and racking regrets for my broken idol and lost elysium -- regrets to which I have latterly avoided referring, but which possessed me and tyrannised over me ruthlessly.
Satisfied with my discovery, I was racking my brain to invent a good practical joke, but to obtain complete revenge it was necessary that my trick should prove worse than the one he had played upon me.
The picture of open jaws and fangs suddenly reminded him with considerable force of his nerve racking brush with the beisa oryx.