Search the Dictionary

Spun yarn used in racking ropes.

It is employed to recover game or prey which has escaped wounded from a hunter, and for tracking criminals. Formerly it was used for pursuing runaway slaves. Other varieties of dog are often used for the same purpose and go by the same name. The Cuban bloodhound is said to be a variety of the mastiff.…

The process of elutriating; a decanting or racking off by means of water, as finer particles from heavier.

. Torturing; racking. "Excruciating pain." V. Knox. "Excruciating fears." Bentley -- Ex*cru"ci*a`ting*ly, adv.

o their quarters in case of fire. -- Fire setting (Mining), the process of softening or cracking the working face of a lode, to facilitate excavation, by exposing it to the action of fire; -- now generally superseded by the use of explosives. Raymond. -- Fire ship, a vessel filled with combustibles, for setting fire…

s. See Mill. High milling, milling in which grain is reduced to flour by a succession of crackings, or of slight and partial crushings, alternately with sifting and sorting the product. -- Low milling, milling in which the reduction is effected in a single crushing or grinding. -- Milling cutter, a fluted, sharp-edge…

An instrument for cracking nuts.

ment, as wine. It is in common practice to draw wine or beer from the lees (which we call racking), whereby it will clarify much the sooner. Bacon. Rack vintage, wine cleansed and drawn from the lees. Cowell.

A horse that has a racking gait.

easonable or extortionate exactions. Our country landlords, by unmeasureable screwing and racking their tenants, have already reduced the miserable people to a worse condition than the peasants in France. swift.

To crack; to cause to make a sharp, cracking noise; as, to snap a whip. MacMorian snapped his fingers repeatedly. Sir W. Scott.

nguish of body or mind; pang; agony; torment; as, torture of mind. Shak. Ghastly spasm or racking torture. Milton.

The act of tracking, or towing, as a boat; towage.