How do I spell "wracking my brain" and what does "wrack" or "rack" mean anyway?
is ir wrack or rack? where does that phrase come from, and can I rack anything else besides my brain??
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“rack your brains”
To pull from Merriam Websters: “to stretch or strain violently <racked his brains>”
And some other uses: (again, from M-W)
“to cause to suffer torture, pain, anguish, or ruin <racked with jealousy> <a company racked by infighting>”
Racking was a form of torture used back in the golden days of the dark ages.
or was it the dark days of the golden age?
And, aha; wrack means the same thing: “to subject to extreme mental or physical suffering; to disturb violently or convulse.” Webster’s Second Collegiate. “Rack one’s brains” is more common w. brains, however.
Drugs, sex and rack and roll?
When I googled “racking my brain” I got 295,000 hits.
When I googled “wracking my brain” there was only 107,000.
Most of these, by the way were people asking which of the two was the correct spelling.
So clearly, more people thought “racking” was the right answer, even though none of them were sure.
you can get racked in the nuts also.
nuts = testicals
racked = hit
Interesting, I only ever thought of wracking brains, not racking them, except in films about brains in jars on racks.
racking is also a carpentry/shop term… it means to force a rectangular shape into or out of squareness.
well, then it’s clearly the right term! i love english…
@Sam; O that we were not in the minority. (Where have you been, BTW?)
(real life… also a little frustrated with the signal to noise ratio on fluther, so i don’t put in quite as much an effort….)
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| asked February 28th, 2008
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