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Ack vs Rack - What's the difference?

ack | rack |

As nouns the difference between ack and rack

is that ack is the letter a as used in signalling and other types of communications while rack is dress, skirt.

As an interjection ack

is (radio communications) acknowledged or ack can be expressing distaste, alarm, or trepidation.

ack

English

(wikipedia ACK)

Alternative forms

* ack

Noun

(en noun)
  • (internet) An acknowledgement either of a packet or a message received from a network.

    • Antonyms

    * NAK

    Anagrams

    * English three-letter words

    rack

    English

    (wikipedia rack)

    Etymology 1

    See Dutch rekken

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A series of one or more shelves, stacked one above the other
  • Any of various kinds of frame for holding clothes, bottles, animal fodder, mined ore, shot on a vessel, etc.
  • (nautical) A piece or frame of wood, having several sheaves, through which the running rigging passes; called also rack block.
  • A distaff.
  • A bar with teeth]] on its face or edge, to work with those of a gearwheel, [[pinion#Etymology 2, pinion, or worm, which is to drive or be driven by it.
  • A bar with teeth on its face or edge, to work with a pawl as a ratchet allowing movement in one direction only, used for example in a handbrake or crossbow.
  • A device, incorporating a ratchet, used to torture victims by stretching them beyond their natural limits.
  • * Macaulay
    • During the troubles of the fifteenth century, a rack was introduced into the Tower, and was occasionally used under the plea of political necessity.
  • A cranequin, a mechanism including a rack, pinion and pawl, providing both mechanical advantage and a ratchet, used to bend and a crossbow.
  • A pair of antlers (as on deer, moose or elk).
  • A cut of meat involving several adjacent ribs.
    • I bought a rack of lamb at the butcher's yesterday.
  • (billiards, snooker, pool) A hollow triangle used for aligning the balls at the start of a game.
    • See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rack_%28billiards%29]
  • (slang) A woman's breasts.
  • (climbing, caving) A friction device for abseiling, consisting of a frame with 5 or more metal bars, around which the rope is threaded. Also rappel rack'', ''abseil rack .
  • (climbing, slang) A climber's set of equipment for setting up protection and belays, consisting of runners, slings, karabiners, nuts, Friends, etc.
    • I used almost a full rack on the second pitch.
  • A grate on which bacon is laid.
  • (obsolete) That which is extorted; exaction.
    • Derived terms
    * autorack * bike rack * cheese rack/cheese-rack * gun rack * spice rack * roof rack * toast rack

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To place in or hang on a rack.
  • To torture (someone) on the rack.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • He was racked and miserably tormented.
  • * 2011 , Thomas Penn, Winter King , Penguin 2012, p. 228:
    • As the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt later recalled, his father, Henry VII's jewel-house keeper Henry Wyatt, had been racked on the orders of Richard III, who had sat there and watched.
  • To cause (someone) to suffer pain.
  • * Milton
    • Vaunting aloud but racked with deep despair.
  • (figurative) To stretch or strain; to harass, or oppress by extortion.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Try what my credit can in Venice do; / That shall be racked even to the uttermost.
  • * Spenser
    • The landlords there shamefully rack their tenants.
  • * Fuller
    • They rack a Scripture simile beyond the true intent thereof.
  • (billiards, snooker, pool) To put the balls into the triangular rack and set them in place on the table.
  • (slang) To strike a male in the groin with the knee.
  • To (manually) load (a round of ammunition) from the magazine or belt into firing position in an automatic or semiautomatic firearm.
  • (mining) To wash (metals, ore, etc.) on a rack.
  • (nautical) To bind together, as two ropes, with cross turns of yarn, marline, etc.

    • Etymology 2

    (etyl)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • stretch joints of a person
    • Derived terms
    * rack one's brain

    Etymology 3

    Probably from (etyl)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To fly, as vapour or broken clouds

    • Noun

    (-)
  • Thin, flying, broken clouds, or any portion of floating vapour in the sky.
    • (Shakespeare)
  • * Francis Bacon
    • The winds in the upper region, which move the clouds above, which we call the rack , pass without noise.
  • * Charles Kingsley
    • And the night rack came rolling up.

    Etymology 4

    (etyl) rakken

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (brewing) To clarify, and thereby deter further fermentation of, beer, wine or cider by draining or siphoning it from the dregs.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • It is in common practice to draw wine or beer from the lees (which we call racking ), whereby it will clarify much the sooner.

    Etymology 5

    See , or rock (verb).

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (of a horse) To amble fast, causing a rocking or swaying motion of the body; to pace.
    • (Fuller)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A fast amble.

    • Etymology 6

    See wreck.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A wreck; destruction.
  • * Samuel Pepys
    • All goes to rack .
    Derived terms
    * rack and ruin

    References

    Anagrams

    *