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on the rack
Idioms and Phrases
Under great stress, as in I was on the rack while I waited for the test results . This expression, alluding to a medieval instrument of torture to which the victim was fastened and stretched, has been used figuratively since the late 1500s. Shakespeare had it in The Merchant of Venice (3:2): “Let me choose, for as I am I live upon the rack.â€Example Sentences
Once, Dalia was pleased to find Fazla spending several hours writing English words in a notebook, only to later learn that Fazla had been copying the names of the cigarette brands displayed on the rack behind her: Parliament, Kool, Newport, Camel.
Preston likens the strapless dress to a wedding cake, which she initially thought might be too much when it was on the rack.
Aim for an even distribution of weight on the rack.
Rave to the car that flashed its lights and rave to the very kind and helpful person who stopped to help me retrieve my bike and put it back on the rack.
And they had Arsenal on the rack once they got the scent that something might be in this for them, but in the end the mountain they created for themselves by conceding those three first-half goals proved insurmountable.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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