The Collaborative International Dictionary
Toast \Toast\, n. [OF. toste, or tost['e]e, toasted bread. See Toast, v.]
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Bread dried and browned before a fire, usually in slices; also, a kind of food prepared by putting slices of toasted bread into milk, gravy, etc.
My sober evening let the tankard bless, With toast embrowned, and fragrant nutmeg fraught.
--T. Warton. -
A lady in honor of whom persons or a company are invited to drink; -- so called because toasts were formerly put into the liquor, as a great delicacy.
It now came to the time of Mr. Jones to give a toast . . . who could not refrain from mentioning his dear Sophia.
--Fielding. -
Hence, any person, especially a person of distinction, in honor of whom a health is drunk; hence, also, anything so commemorated; a sentiment, as ``The land we live in,'' ``The day we celebrate,'' etc.
Toast rack, a small rack or stand for a table, having partitions for holding slices of dry toast.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A rack designed to hold toasted bread. 2 A type of bicycle stand consisting of several inverted "U-shaped" metal bars connected at ground level by two parallel rails. 3 (context rail transport usually informal English) Any several types of railway or tramway passenger vehicles with transverse benches that span the width of the vehicle and open sides, such that it resembles a toast rack.
Wikipedia
A toast rack or toastrack is a serving piece having vertical partitions (usually from five to eight in number) connected to a flat base, used for holding slices of toast. It often has a central ring handle for carrying and passing round the table.
The term toast rack is also used in other fields, notably railways and architectural design, usually as a derivative term for objects resembling a toast rack (see below).
The Toast Rack, or formerly known as the 'Hollings Building', is a Modernist building in Manchester, England. The building was completed in 1960 as the Domestic Trades College, became part of Manchester Polytechnic then Manchester Metropolitan University until closure of the "Hollings Campus" in 2013. It was designed by the city architect, Leonard Cecil Howitt and is known as the Toast Rack due to its distinctive form (reflecting its use as a catering college).
The pre-eminent architecture critic Nikolaus Pevsner described the building as "a perfect piece of pop architecture". It was Grade II listed in April 1998 by English Heritage who describe the structure as, "a distinctive and memorable building which demonstrates this architect's love of structural gymnastics in a dramatic way". To others the building symbolises the ideals of the Festival of Britain and architectural positivity following World War II.
The building's structure consists of a concrete frame with a brick infill on the bottom half of each storey. The building is seven storeys high and its hyperbolic paraboloid frame continues on the exterior, hence the toast rack comparison. Although the building's unorthodox form is playful, its tapering shape also helps to divide space into varying sizes for larger and smaller classes. A semi-circular restaurant block is attached to the west and is informally known as the Fried Egg
Manchester Metropolitan University left their Hollings Campus in 2013 as they consolidated their facilities towards the city centre. The Toast Rack is now up for sale and it is hoped it will be renovated.
Usage examples of "toast rack".
I gestured toward the bedside table, adorned with a small teapot, carefully keeping warm under a knitted cozy, and a silver-plated toast rack, just as carefully keeping the toast nice and cold.
Richard would have two boiled eggs, two thick rashers of bacon and a grilled tomato, with toast and marmalade, the toast brittle, cooled in a toast rack.
Ronnie looked over the toast rack and chose whole wheat with raisins.
He had to hold the slices for him so he could get them into his mouth since they were too slippery for the cat to pick off the plate and he thought he must rig some sort of a rack, like a toast rack, so the cat could take them without having to hurry.
On the morning of the game, Charlie came down to breakfast to find two stand tickets wedged in the toast rack.