rack one's brain

English

Alternative forms

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.

Verb

rack one's brain

(idiomatic) 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 (zh), 绞尽脑汁 (zh) (jiǎojìn nǎozhī)
Dutch: zich suf piekeren
Finnish: miettiä päänsä puhki
French: se creuser la tête (fr), se creuser les méninges (fr), se creuser la cervelle (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)
Portuguese: quebrar a cabeça (pt)
Russian: лома́ть го́лову (ru) impf (lomátʹ gólovu)
Spanish: devanarse los sesos
Turkish: kafa patlatmak (tr)
Walloon: si tuzer moirt (wa), si casser l' tiesse (wa)

References

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

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