RACKING Synonyms: 124 Similar and Opposite Words

racking 1 of 2

adjective

Definition of racking next

as in wrenching

intensely or unbearably painful a racking cough kept him awake all night

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

racking

2 of 2

verb

present participle of rack

as in plaguing

to cause persistent suffering to the young man was racked with guilt over the lie he had told to his parents the country has been racked by years of civil war

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in pulling

to injure by overuse, misuse, or pressure she racked her brain trying to remember where she'd put the money the sails of the boat were racked by the storm's winds

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of racking

Verb

Since avian flu turned eggs into a luxury item, pastry chef Annie Clemmons has spent countless hours in her Maryland workshop, racking her brains about how to replace them in her recipes. —

Alex Harring, CNBC, 26 Feb. 2026 Video footage showed Curry shooting with his left hand, racking the gun to fix a malfunction, taking out and reinserting a magazine, then checking his abdomen, apparently realizing he has been shot. —

Jakob Rodgers, Mercury News, 24 Feb. 2026 On the small screen, the influencer Gabriella Carr recently drew her sizable flock to a rejection spreadsheet, where the video creator and actress means to track all her professional door-slams with an eye to racking ’em up. —

Brittany Allen, Literary Hub, 4 Feb. 2026 He was accused of taking his gun out of his holster, racking the gun and pointing it at both people. —

Jeff A. Chamer december 11, Charlotte Observer, 11 Dec. 2025 The machines autonomously lifted and placed panels onto racking structures, at the Goorambat East site, located near the city of Benalla, approximately 130 miles northeast of Melbourne. —

Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 3 Oct. 2025 But after racking just two flags through the first half's first 29 minutes, a critical pass-interference penalty in the final seconds moved Kansas City into position to kick a go-ahead field goal and provide the 9-6 halftime margin. —

Andrew Greif, NBC news, 22 Sep. 2025 Then came the rise of racking systems, e-commerce fulfillment and the drive for cubic efficiency. —

Allen Buchanan, Oc Register, 20 Sep. 2025 The Wiggles are a powerhouse, racking-up more than 30 million sales of albums and DVDs, and upwards of 8 million book sales. —

Lars Brandle, Billboard, 3 Sep. 2019

Recent Examples of Synonyms for racking

Adjective

Another wrenching question, of course, is whether at least the younger Perez siblings would want or need to go with Olga to Guatemala if she were deported.

— Tim Padgett, Sun Sentinel, 27 Mar. 2026
These four novels create a convincing, wrenching, kaleidoscopic picture of the range and repetitions of the most fatal kind of love; the sort of love that allows nothing else to grow around it, that eradicates all dignity; a love which, in order to be completed, must be told.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 17 Feb. 2026