Shelf vs Rack - What's the difference?
shelf | rack |
A flat, rigid, rectangular structure, fixed at right angles to a wall, and used to support, store or display objects.
* 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/nyregion/new-jersey-continues-to-cope-with-hurricane-sandy.html?hp]," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):
The capacity of such an object; as, a shelf of videos.
A projecting ledge that resembles such an object.
A reef, shoal or sandbar.
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
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.
(billiards, snooker, pool) A hollow triangle used for aligning the balls at the start of a game.
(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.
A grate on which bacon is laid.
(obsolete) That which is extorted; exaction.
To place in or hang on a rack.
To torture (someone) on the rack.
* Alexander Pope
* 2011 , Thomas Penn, Winter King , Penguin 2012, p. 228:
To cause (someone) to suffer pain.
* Milton
(figurative) To stretch or strain; to harass, or oppress by extortion.
* Shakespeare
* Spenser
* Fuller
(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.
Thin, flying, broken clouds, or any portion of floating vapour in the sky.
* Francis Bacon
* Charles Kingsley
(brewing) To clarify, and thereby deter further fermentation of, beer, wine or cider by draining or siphoning it from the dregs.
* Francis Bacon
(of a horse) To amble fast, causing a rocking or swaying motion of the body; to pace.
As nouns the difference between shelf and rack
is that shelf is a flat, rigid, rectangular structure, fixed at right angles to a wall, and used to support, store or display objects while rack is a series of one or more shelves, stacked one above the other.As a verb rack is
to place in or hang on a rack.shelf
English
(wikipedia shelf)Noun
(shelves)- Localities across New Jersey imposed curfews to prevent looting. In Monmouth, Ocean and other counties, people waited for hours for gasoline at the few stations that had electricity. Supermarket shelves were stripped bare.
Synonyms
* (capacity) shelffulDerived terms
* bookshelf * continental shelf * off the shelf * on the shelf * shelfful * shelvy * shelf liferack
English
(wikipedia rack)Etymology 1
See Dutch rekkenNoun
(en noun)- During the troubles of the fifteenth century, a rack was introduced into the Tower, and was occasionally used under the plea of political necessity.
- I bought a rack of lamb at the butcher's yesterday.
- See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rack_%28billiards%29]
- I used almost a full rack on the second pitch.
Derived terms
* autorack * bike rack * cheese rack/cheese-rack * gun rack * spice rack * roof rack * toast rackVerb
(en verb)- He was racked and miserably tormented.
- 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.
- Vaunting aloud but racked with deep despair.
- Try what my credit can in Venice do; / That shall be racked even to the uttermost.
- The landlords there shamefully rack their tenants.
- They rack a Scripture simile beyond the true intent thereof.
Etymology 2
(etyl)Derived terms
* rack one's brainEtymology 3
Probably from (etyl)Noun
(-)- (Shakespeare)
- The winds in the upper region, which move the clouds above, which we call the rack , pass without noise.
- And the night rack came rolling up.
Etymology 4
(etyl) rakkenVerb
(en verb)- 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)- (Fuller)
