rack one's brain

rack one's brain

English

Alternative forms

• rack one's brains
• (proscribed) wrack one's brain
• (proscribed) wrack one's brains

Etymology

Combination of rack (“medieval torture method”), and brain, thus meaning “to cause the mind extreme discomfort”.

Variants include rack one's wit (1583) and rack one's memory,[1] as well as cudgel one's brain / cudgel one's brains.

Pronunciation

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Verb

rack one's brain (third-person singular simple present racks one's brain, present participle racking one's brain, simple past and past participle racked one's brain)

1. (figuratively) To struggle to think of or remember something.

   I have been racking my brain all day trying to think of a birthday present for her.

Translations

struggle to think of something

Chinese: Mandarin: 絞盡腦汁／绞尽脑汁 (zh) (jiǎojìn nǎozhī) Czech: lámat si hlavu (cs) Dutch: zich suf piekeren Esperanto: cerbumi (eo) Finnish: miettiä päänsä puhki French: se creuser la tête (fr), se creuser les méninges (fr), se creuser la cervelle (fr), se casser la tête (fr) German: sich den Kopf zerbrechen (de) Hungarian: töri a fejét (hu) Icelandic: brjóta heilann Italian: scervellarsi (it), arrovellarsi, lambiccarsi il cervello, spremersi le meningi Japanese: 脳漿を絞る (nōshō o shiboru) Polish: łamać sobie głowę (pl), zachodzić w głowę (pl) Portuguese: quebrar a cabeça (pt) Russian: лома́ть го́лову (ru) impf (lomátʹ gólovu) Spanish: devanarse los sesos, romperse la cabeza Turkish: kafa patlatmak (tr) Walloon: si tuzer moirt (wa), si casser l' tiesse (wa)

See also

• beat one's brains

References

1. Michael Quinion (2011-11-19), “Wrack or rack?”, in World Wide Words‎