Green’s Dictionary of Slang

rack n.2

1. (US) an omnibus.

[US]Daily Trib. (Bismarck, ND) 23 Oct. 4/1: An omnibus is a ‘rack’.

2. (US) the female breasts, esp. when large and firm.

[US]Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl. 174: I love a big rack as much as the next guy.
[US]Current Sl. IV:3–4 (1970) 22: Rack, n. A woman with a large bust.
[US]J. Bouton Ball Four 259: ‘Up there near the Section 23 sign. Check the rack on that broad’.
[US](con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 40: Long legs, a rack and a nice package in the back.
[Aus]L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] All I really needed was the tits. Witha rack like this nobody looks very closely at your face.
[Ire]P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 224: He’s copping an eyeful of Sorcha’s rack.
[US](ref. to 1963) D. Winslow Winter of Frankie Machine (2007) 60: Marie Anselmo hot [...] with a nice rack packed tightly in that blouse and a pair of shapely legs.
[Aus]L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] Check out that fat bloke. He’s got a better rack than you.
[US]Slate 20 Jan. 🌐 Radical rack augmentation is now ubiquitous, and to hell with the consequences.
[US]G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 39: The big firm rack of a straight-off-the-farm centerfold.
Twitter 2 June 🌐 Boy of around 10 years old just walked straight into my rack. Head firmly between both breasts, and stayed there until I removed him.
[Aus]G. Disher Heat [ebook] She had the deepest tan he’d ever seen, nice rack, long taut muscles moving under calves and thighs.
[US]D. Winslow ‘Crime 101’ in Broken 70: [T]rim legs, nice rack.

3. (orig. US milit.) a bed; thus sleep.

[US] P. Kendall Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: back in the rack . . . . to get back into bed. A soldier should never go to bed as long as he has the strength to lie in bed.
[US]E. Gilbert Vice Trap 73: He’ll go back across the border and sleep in his own rack the same night.
[US]L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 18: The guy who sleeps in the bunk above me stuck it on the edge of my rack.
[US]E. Torres Carlito’s Way 45: I seen some jump off their rack with a towel wrapped around their neck.
[US]M. Baker Nam (1982) 16: You got two minutes to get dressed, make your rack and fall out.
[US](con. c.1970) G. Hasford Phantom Blooper 181: The rack is too soft for comfort after a year of sleeping on a reed mat.
[Aus]B. Moore Lex. of Cadet Lang. 291: usage: ‘The rack calls me. I’m off’.
[US]G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 8: When I was in the rack with her [etc.].
[US]‘Jack Tunney’ Cutman [ebook] All I wanted was [...] a bellyful of beer and a nice, soft rack to sleep it off.
[US]D. Winslow The Force [ebook] ‘The comptroller found naked [...] in the rack with a brace of call girls’.

4. (US black) a card holding bubble-packed birth control pills.

[US]E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 197: There are expressions related to pregnancy, menstruation, birth control, and female hygiene: [...] rack, roll (month’s supply of birth control pills).

5. (US drugs) a quantity of drugs, e.g. pills, vials of crack cocaine, etc.

[US]Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 5: rack – five red depressants of seconal.
[UK](con. 1971) W. Sherman Times Square 59: ‘A hundred a rack ain’t nothin’.’ They snort three hundred dollars’ worth of coke a night.
[US]T. Fontana ‘Strange Bedfellows’ Oz ser. 2 ep. 6 [TV script] The voters would frown upon their chief executive doing street rack.
[US]G. Pelecanos Soul Circus 201: He had some fake crack in his pocket, a whole rack of dummies.
67 ‘Dead Up’ 🎵 Walk around with 5 zeds in my pouch / Let 4 go for a whole rack.
Jeezy ‘Recipe’ 🎵 Shit I'm smokin' so loud we call it ambulance / So many racks in my pocket, look like some Hammer pants.

6. (US black) of money, a large quantity.

[US]G. Pelecanos Soul Circus 162: I’ll give what I got for some dummies I can sell out there on the strip. I can make a quick rack of money like that.
Chief Keef ‘Kobe’ 🎵 I say baby I got the racks she like you need to show me / [...] / On my right wrist Versace on my left wrist a Rolly.
J. Spades at http://www.redbull.com 🌐 I’ve never had a label wire 100 racks to my bank account or whatever.
[UK]Unknown T ‘Mad about Bars’ 🎵 Bag that work with the latex on, the rack will come in, / Again and again, the racks will come in.
Digga D. ‘Little Big Boss’ 🎵 I do boss shit / I drop a hunnid racks and get that pussy boy off quick.

7. a hotel.

[US]E. Weiner Drop Dead, My Lovely (2005) 9: The Hotel Urbane, a fading tourist rack off Broadway in the Nineties.

8. (US teen) a case of beer.

Urban Dict. 31 Oct. 🌐 All I know is I give somebody $20 and they come back with a thirty rack of beer.
[US]New Yorker 31 Aug. 🌐 Participants form teams of two and compete to see which pair can drink its way through a case of beer the fastest. (To get the most out of the experience, I was told, it’s best to use a ‘thirty rack.’).

In derivatives

racked (adj.)

1. tired out, exhausted.

[US]Baker et al. CUSS 180: Racked Drunk and passed out.
[US]D. Pendleton Executioner (1973) 167: They’re gonna get themselves racked out, that’s what.

2. in bed, asleep.

[US]D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 127: Everybody else is still racked in and I guess I’m up early because this is Friday and it will be our last serious workout of the week.

In compounds

rack attack (n.)

(US campus) a sudden onset of sleepiness.

[US]Cincinnati Enquirer (OH) 15 Jan. 9/3: I’ve had so many afternoon rack attacks I’ve got bed sores.
[US]G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 64: rack attack Rest, nap.
rack monster (n.) (US campus)

1. (also pad monster) sleepiness, the result either of boredom or exhaustion.

[US]Current Sl. II:3 5: Pad monster, n. Sleep in its most contagious form; the result of something extremely dull.
[US]G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 64: The rack monster got me.

2. a bed.

[US]Eble Campus Sl. Mar.
[US]D. Lypchuk ‘A dirty little story’ in eye mag. 8 July 🌐 He suggested they do some Ugandan discussion at his pit, where they lay down on the rack monster.
rack time (n.)

sleep; a nap.

[US](con. c.1970) G. Hasford Phantom Blooper 51: Cutting zulus, the New Guy nods forward, pulls himself a little rack time.
[US]S.M. Jones August Snow [ebook] ‘Looks like you ain’t slept in twenty-four. Get some rack time, man’.

In phrases

hit the rack (v.)

1. to go to bed.

[US](con. early 1950s) J. Peacock Valhalla 58: Well, we may as well hit the rack.
[US]M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 211: I don’t have to do nothing you say, punk. Hit your rack.
[US]A. Sorkin A Few Good Men (1990) 54: Take a shower and hit the rack!
[US]T. Wolff In Pharoah’s Army 146: We stayed up and had a beer after Shaw and Sergeant Benet hit the rack.

2. (US/US gay) by ext., to have sexual intercourse.

[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 107: hit the sack [rack, springs] to make love.
rack out (v.)

(drugs) to lay out a line of a powdered drug.

[Scot]I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers [21]: — Any ching? Sick Boy asks ays. — Well, aye… — Rack them the fuck oot then.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

rack man (n.) [he deals with the racks of coins]

an official in a crap game who deals with making change, paying winners, etc.

[US]D. Fuchs Low Company 121: The rack man at Myrtle Avenue told him indifferently that none of them had been seen in the room all day.
[US]C. Himes Imabelle 22: Across from him sat the rack man on a high stool.
[US]C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 23: [as 1957].

In phrases

rack (it) (v.) [SE book rack]

(US campus) to work hard.

[US] (ref. to 1940s) W. Safire What’s The Good Word? 86: [At college] We did ‘rack it,’ which in terms of severity was somewhere between ‘hitting the books’ (in-room study) and ‘hitting the libe’ and could mean either or both.