('Rack' is considered the more correct spelling, though 'wrack' has become acceptable through common usage. Thus it seems more likely that the phrase is rack your brains instead of wrack. To struggle very hard to recall or think of something. There is some disagreement, but more sources say it should be rack. However, rack your brains is correct and more common: That being said, there is some use of wrack your brains (blue line) as shown by this Google NGram. The Grammarist agrees it should be rack as well. idiom UK (US rack your brain) Add to word list. Reformers are racking their brains for a way to slow down these processes. The old-fashioned spelling wrack' is occasionally used instead of rack' in this expression. If things are wrecked, they go to “wrack and ruin.” to think very hard about something or try very hard to remember it. “Wrack” has to do with ruinous accidents, so if the stock market is wracked by rumors of imminent recession, it’s wrecked. You rack your brains when you stretch them vigorously to search out the truth like a torturer. If you are racked with pain or you feel nerve-racked, you are feeling as if you were being stretched on that Medieval instrument of torture, the rack. Shakespeare was one of many authors who used this.įurther, this book on common English errors says it should be rack: It isn't surprising that 'rack' was adopted as a verb meaning to cause pain and anguish. The crude but, one presumes, effective racks often tore the victim's limbs from their bodies.

The PhraseFinder agrees that the phrase is rack your brains, adding: Rack your brains is an alternative.) All idioms have been editorially reviewed, and submitted idioms may have been edited for correctness and completeness. with rack (1) in the verb sense of 'to torture on the rack ' to wrack one's brains is thus erroneous. Meaning: If you rack your brain, you think very hard when trying to remember something or think hard to solve a problem, findf and answer, etc. The verb meaning 'to ruin or wreck' (originally of ships) is recorded from 1560s, from earlier intrans. However, according to this entry for wrack in EtymOnline, the term should be rack: Figurative senses of the verb, deriving from the type of torture in which someone is stretched on a rack, can, however, be spelled either rack or wrack: thus racked with guilt or wracked with guilt rack your brains or wrack your brains. In the phrase rack something up the word is also always spelled rack. The most common noun sense of rack, ‘a framework for holding and storing things’, is always spelled rack, never wrack. How to use rack ones brain in a sentence. One argument is that to 'rack a brain' comes from the torture device known as a rack. The meaning of RACK ONES BRAIN is to think very hard in order to try to remember something, solve a problem, etc. The relationship between the forms rack and wrack is complicated. Which is the correct usage: 'rack my brain' or 'wrack my brain' Google turned up pages with conflicting recommendations. Says that the phrase could use either wrack or rack. The Oxford Dictionary Online (now Oxford Languages)

Wrack my brain meaning