Englishrack one's brain
Meaning: To search through one's mind intensively; to try very hard to think of something.
Example: “I racked my brain, but I couldn't remember where I parked.”
Equivalents in other languages
Lithuanian: Sukti galvą Literally: To twist your head
Hebrew: שבר את הראש (shavar et harosh) Literally: To break your head
Origin: The rack was a real instrument of torture, stretching a victim's body along a frame until the joints gave way, and "rack" was already established as a verb for inflicting exactly that kind of pain by the time Shakespeare used it in Twelfth Night (1602): "how have the hours racked and tortured me." "Rack one's wits" is on record from 1583, applying the same image of forced, painful stretching to the mind rather than the body — straining mental effort to its limit trying to remember or work something out. "Wracked" and "racked" have been used interchangeably in this phrase since the late 1800s, both spellings still common today.
More English idioms
- stand on one's own two feet To be independent and self-supporting.
- stick one's neck out To take a risk.
- stick one's nose in To try to find out about someone else's private business.
- stick out like a sore thumb Not to blend in; to be obvious and prominent or easily seen.
- sweat blood To put out a great deal of effort; to work very, very hard.
- sweep someone off their feet To overwhelm someone, often causing him or her to fall in love.
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