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Brit. /rakt/, U.S. /rækt/ Forms: see RACK v.1 and -ED suffix1. [< RACK v.1 + -ED suffix1.]
1. That has been racked (in various senses); esp. tortured on the rack; tormented; strained to or beyond the limit.
1546 G. JOYE Refut. Byshop Winchesters Derke Declar. f. xxi, The..repentaunce that is wrested out of the racked and pyned Malefactours, confessynge their synnes for very fear and payne onely.
1571 A. GOLDING tr. J. Calvin
Psalmes of Dauid with Comm. iv. 1 Wheras some translate thys woord (for ever)..I do reject as a racked translation.
1583 P. STUBBES Second Pt. Anat. Abuses sig. D7
v, They will be sure to make price of their racked cloth double, and triple more than it cost them.
1606 J. SYLVESTER tr. G. de S. Du Bartas
Deuine Weekes & Wks. (new ed.)
II. iv. 24 Hee makes th' whole Kingdoms wracked ribs to meet.
1640 R. BRATHWAIT Ar't Asleepe Husband? 259 Civile curtsies can hardly passe without some rackt Construction.
1656 A. COWLEY Davideis III. 99 in
Poems, Merab rejoyc'ed in her wrackt Lovers pain.
1702 C. B
EAUMONT J. Beaumont's Psyche (new ed.)
X. ccxxxiv. 153 New fear Stormed their wracked Souls.
1786 H. COWLEY School for Greybeards I. i. 14 Hah! she doth not look
happy
some consolation to my rack'd heart!
1824 C. G. G
ARNETT Night Before Bridal III. xi. 100 A bell Has rung in my rack'd ears its ceaseless knell.
1867 TROLLOPE Last Chron. Barset I. i. 11 He endeavoured to tell the truth, as far as his poor racked imperfect memory would allow him.
1900 J. CONRAD Lord Jim xxxvii. 370 He was..able to talk between the choking fits of asthma, and his racked body writhed with malicious exultation at the bare thought of Jim.
1970 Times 21 May 11/8 Cecil's cold-blooded questioning of a racked Catholic suspect.
1975 I. MCEWAN First Love, Last Rites (1976) 16, I loved the racked, contorted faces of the runners as they came up the tunnel of flags and crossed the finishing line.
1995 Australian (
Brisbane
)
8 June 16/2 What gives it considerable life is the extraordinarily racked lead performance.
2. a. Of rent: raised to an excessive level; (also in later use) set at a rate representing the full value of the land and buildings. See RACK RENT n. Now rare.
1574 R. ROBINSON Rewarde of Wickednesse sig. D, His stoared ground, his racked rents, his heards of goats..made him to forget his duty cleane.
1581 T. LUPTON 2nd Pt. Too Good to be True sig. Hiv
v, Poore Tenantes, that pay great and excessiue Fines, and rackt Rents.
1583 P. STUBBES Second Pt. Anat. Abuses sig. E4
v, He might haue it freely for this racked rent.
1668 R. L'ESTRANGE tr. F. G. de Quevedo y Villegas
Visions (1708) 164 Impositions, hard Services, and Rackt Rents.
1725 A. RAMSAY Gentle Shepherd II. i. 19 Never did he stent Us in our Thriving with a racket Rent.
1763 T. T
URNER Diary Georgian Shopkeeper 24 Mar. (1979) 57 The design of our [vestry] meeting was to have made a poor rate, every one to be assessed to the racked rent.
1799 J. ROBERTSON Gen. View Agric. Perth 404 Racked rents..disable the tenant to improve.
1941 Times 2 July 9/5 In the case of rent, which was full racked rent, the tenant would be repaid by the Commissioners the whole amount of tax.
b. Of tenants, their income, land, etc.: oppressed by or subjected to extortion or excessive rent. Obs.
1616 T. ADAMS Divine Herball 148 The wealthy Gentleman..that..takes his rent in bloud; the heart-bloud of his racked Tenants; cares not for Repentance.
1643 W. PRYNNE Soveraigne Power Parl. II. 30 Weekely or monethly assessements and contributions..exceeding many mens racked incomes.
1732 SWIFT Proposal National Debt in
Wks. (1735) IV. 311 A Land Tax, upon a rackt Estate, would be a Burthen wholly insupportable.
1781 W. COWPER Expostulation 304 Thy racked inhabitants repine, complain.
3. With adverbs. Now chiefly U.S.
a. racked out adj.: (a) exhausted; worn out; (b) endured with suffering (rare).
1870 SIR S. NORTHCOTE in
Life (1890) II. xii. 30 The old racked-out tobacco and corn lands.
1900 W. A. ELLIS Life Wagner 332 The harvest of the last outlived, or rather racked-out Summer.
1985 Arkansas Democrat-Gaz. (Nexis) 16 June, He's concerned about her health. ‘I've seen two interviews with her,’ Jim Palmer said. ‘She really looks racked out.’
2003 Times-Picayune (
New Orleans, Louisiana
)
(Nexis) 14 Dec. 1 The difficulty of throwing away old, racked-out garbage cans.
b. racked up adj.: upset; injured; also fig.
1974 J. D. MACDONALD Dreadful Lemon Sky (1975) iv. 57 Betty was all racked up over the accident.
1991 J. A
SHBERY Flow Chart IV. 130 One can easily side with some who offer no moral incentive to cling together, who are, in their own words, ‘racked up’, meaning blighted.
2003 Bang Apr. 65/2, I got a dislocated disc and a racked-up back.
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