rack and pinion
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rack and pinion
n.
A device for the conversion of rotary and linear motion, consisting of a pinion and a mated rack.
rack′-and-pin′ion adj.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
rack1
(ræk)n.
1. a framework of bars, pegs, etc., on which articles are arranged or deposited: a clothes rack.
2. a fixture containing tiered shelves, often affixed to a wall: a spice rack.
3. a framework set up on a vehicle to carry loads.
4.
a. a triangular wooden frame in which balls are arranged before a game of pool.
b. the balls so arranged.
5. Mach.
a. a bar, with teeth on one of its sides, adapted to engage with the teeth of a pinion (rack and pinion) or the like, as for converting circular into rectilinear motion or vice versa.
b. a bar having a series of notches engaging with a pawl or the like.
6. a former instrument of torture on which a victim was slowly stretched.
7. a cause or state of intense suffering of body or mind.
8. violent strain.
9. a pair of antlers.
v.t. 10. to torture; distress acutely; torment.
11. to strain in mental effort: to rack one's brains.
12. to strain by physical force or violence.
13. to stretch the body of (a person) on a rack.
14. rack up,
a. Pool. to put (the balls) in a rack.
b. to gain, achieve, or score: The new store is racking up profits.
[1250–1300; Middle English rakke, rekke (n.) < Middle Dutch rac, rec, recke]
rack2
(ræk)n.
wreckage or destruction; wrack: to go to rack and ruin.
[1590–1600; variant of wrack1]
rack3
(ræk)n.
1. the fast pace of a horse in which the legs move in lateral pairs but not simultaneously.
v.i. 2. (of horses) to move in a rack.
[1570–80; perhaps alter. of rock2]
rack4
(ræk)n.
1. a group of drifting clouds.
v.i. 2. to drive or move, esp. before the wind.
[1350–1400; Middle English rak]
rack5
(ræk)v.t.
to draw off (wine, cider, etc.) from the lees.
[1425–75; < Old French]
rack6
(ræk)n.
1. the neck portion of mutton, pork, or veal.
2. the rib section of a foresaddle of lamb, veal, etc.
[1560–70; orig. uncertain]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
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| Noun | 1. | rack and pinion - a wheel gear (the pinion) meshes with a toothed rack; converts rotary to reciprocating motion (and vice versa) cogwheel, gear, gear wheel, geared wheel - a toothed wheel that engages another toothed mechanism in order to change the speed or direction of transmitted motion |
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