Is it wracking or racking?
Is it wracking or racking?
But then, when you want to say that something is nerve-racking, you can also say it’s nerve-wracking. If you look it up, you’ll see that wrack is an accepted spelling variant in some cases. In other cases, like when you want so say that your shoes are racked in your closet, you can’t use wrack.
What is the definition of nerve wracking?
: extremely trying on the nerves a nerve-racking ordeal The job interview was a nerve-racking experience.
What’s wracking?
1 : ruin, destruction. 2 : a remnant of something destroyed. wrack. verb (1) wracked; wracking; wracks.
Why is it called nerve wracking?
Some people prefer “nerve-wracking” because they associate it with wrecking – the wording “nervous wreck” is recorded as early as 1871. It was always likely that rack and wrack should overlap. Wr- at the start of a word has been hard to pronounce from the time when w began to sound in Old English as it does today.
Is it rack or wrack my brain?
The spelling ‘rack’ is now used in all senses except for the seaweed called wrack. So it’s “rack and ruin,” … “racking my brains,” and so on. Some other usage guides provide a way of dealing with this question that has a certain brutal charm: just stop using the word wrack.
Is it crack your brain or wrack your brain?
The written form “wrack one’s brains” is, therefore, incorrect. In my view, “to go from rack to ruin” is also incorrect, but the Free Dictionary offers entries from both the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs and the Cambridge Idioms Dictionary which seem to find either spelling acceptable.
What is the meaning of the word Wrack?
A fast, flashy, four-beat gait of a horse in which each foot touches the ground separately and at equal intervals. To go or move at a rack. [ Origin unknown .] n. A thin mass of wind-driven clouds. [Middle English rak, probably of Scandinavian origin; akin to Swedish rak, wreckage .] n. Variant of wrack 1. n. & v. Variant of wrack 2.
What is the difference between rack and wrack?
Wrack and rack are etymologically distinct, meaning they come from different words. Many usage guides will advise that you should use wrack for meanings such as “to utterly ruin,” and rack for “to cause to suffer torture, pain, anguish, or ruin.”
What causes a building to have a racking effect?
This is most commonly caused by wind forces exerting horizontal pressure, but it can also be caused by seismic stress, thermal expansion or contraction, and so on. A building’s resistance to racking is dependent on the general construction of the building as well as its size, shape and orientation to the prevailing winds .
What makes you want to look up Wrack?
Middle English wrake, wrak, going back to Old English wracu (genitive wræce) & wræc “vengeance, persecution, misery,” noun derivatives from the base of Germanic *wrekan- “to drive out, pursue” — more at wreak What made you want to look up wrack? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible). Love words?