See rack one's brain in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for rack one's brain meaning in English (6.9kB)
{
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"4": "medieval torture method"
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"2": "cudgel one's brain"
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{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "cudgel one's brains"
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],
"etymology_text": "Combination of rack (“medieval torture method”), and brain, thus meaning “to cause the mind extreme discomfort”.\nVariants include rack one's wit (1583) and rack one's memory, as well as cudgel one's brain / cudgel one's brains.",
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"text": "I have been racking my brain all day trying to think of a birthday present for her.",
"type": "example"
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{
"ref": "2023 January 19, Zohaib Ahmed, “Here’s how ChatGPT can help you deal with boring tasks so you can focus on things that matter”, in The Indian Express",
"text": "Let’s face it – math isn’t for everyone. If you’re done racking your brains over a question based on quadratic equations, differential calculus, or even lengthy word problems, and can’t for the life of you figure out what’s what, then perhaps it’s time you let ChatGPT take up the role of a home tutor.",
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"id": "en-rack_one's_brain-en-verb-v99YBHqz",
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"(figuratively) To struggle to think of or remember something."
],
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"word": "beat one's brains"
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],
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"word": "rack one's brains"
},
{
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"word": "wrack one's brain"
},
{
"tags": [
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"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "絞盡腦汁"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "jiǎojìn nǎozhī",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "绞尽脑汁"
},
{
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "lámat si hlavu"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "zich suf piekeren"
},
{
"code": "eo",
"lang": "Esperanto",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "cerbumi"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "miettiä päänsä puhki"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "se creuser la tête"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "se creuser les méninges"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "se creuser la cervelle"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "se casser la tête"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "sich den Kopf zerbrechen"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "töri a fejét"
},
{
"code": "is",
"lang": "Icelandic",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "brjóta heilann"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "scervellarsi"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "arrovellarsi"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "lambiccarsi il cervello"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "spremersi le meningi"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "nōshō o shiboru",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "脳漿を絞る"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "łamać sobie głowę"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "zachodzić w głowę"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "quebrar a cabeça"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "lomátʹ gólovu",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "лома́ть го́лову"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "devanarse los sesos"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "romperse la cabeza"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "kafa patlatmak"
},
{
"code": "wa",
"lang": "Walloon",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "si tuzer moirt"
},
{
"code": "wa",
"lang": "Walloon",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "si casser l' tiesse"
}
]
}
],
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"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/En-au-rack_one%27s_brain.ogg",
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"word": "rack one's brain"
}
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"ref": "2023 January 19, Zohaib Ahmed, “Here’s how ChatGPT can help you deal with boring tasks so you can focus on things that matter”, in The Indian Express",
"text": "Let’s face it – math isn’t for everyone. If you’re done racking your brains over a question based on quadratic equations, differential calculus, or even lengthy word problems, and can’t for the life of you figure out what’s what, then perhaps it’s time you let ChatGPT take up the role of a home tutor.",
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"word": "rack one's brains"
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"word": "wrack one's brain"
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{
"tags": [
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"word": "wrack one's brains"
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"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "絞盡腦汁"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "jiǎojìn nǎozhī",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "绞尽脑汁"
},
{
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "lámat si hlavu"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "zich suf piekeren"
},
{
"code": "eo",
"lang": "Esperanto",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "cerbumi"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "miettiä päänsä puhki"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "se creuser la tête"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "se creuser les méninges"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "se creuser la cervelle"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "se casser la tête"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "sich den Kopf zerbrechen"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "töri a fejét"
},
{
"code": "is",
"lang": "Icelandic",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "brjóta heilann"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "scervellarsi"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "arrovellarsi"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "lambiccarsi il cervello"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "spremersi le meningi"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "nōshō o shiboru",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "脳漿を絞る"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "łamać sobie głowę"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "zachodzić w głowę"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "quebrar a cabeça"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "lomátʹ gólovu",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "лома́ть го́лову"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "devanarse los sesos"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "romperse la cabeza"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "kafa patlatmak"
},
{
"code": "wa",
"lang": "Walloon",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "si tuzer moirt"
},
{
"code": "wa",
"lang": "Walloon",
"sense": "struggle to think of something",
"word": "si casser l' tiesse"
}
],
"word": "rack one's brain"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.