Racking

How to spell racking

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce racking

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does racking mean?

1. verbCausing or undergoing intense mental or physical strain.
2. nounA framework of shelves or bars used to store goods, especially in a warehouse.

Racking in a sentence

• verb

  She spent the whole afternoon racking her brain for the password.

• noun

  The warehouse installed tall steel racking for the pallets.

• verb

  A racking cough kept him awake for most of the night.

• noun

  The shop's racking collapsed under the weight of the stock.

Where does racking come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

The base word 'rack' came into English in the late Middle Ages from Middle Dutch 'rec' and the related Middle Low German 'rek', meaning a framework, rail, or bar on which things could be stretched or hung. From the literal idea of a frame for stretching came the grim medieval instrument of torture, the rack, on which a victim's body was pulled taut, and from that came the figurative sense of being stretched by pain or anxiety, as in racking one's brains or a racking cough. The everyday storage sense (shelves and frames in a warehouse) preserves the original 'framework' meaning almost unchanged. The spelling trap is real: many writers add a silent 'w' and produce 'wracking', because 'wrack' (related to wreck and ruin) is a genuine but separate word, so 'nerve-racking' is endlessly muddled with 'nerve-wracking'. The single Germanic root is why 'racking' keeps its plain spelling with no hidden letters.

How the word is built

• rack (frame; to stretch or strain)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix)