rax
English
WOTD – 3 May 2010
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɹæks/
Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -æks
Etymology 1
From Middle English raxen, rasken (“to stretch oneself”), from Old English raxan, racsan (“to stretch oneself after sleep”), probably alteration, with formative s, of Old English rǣċan, ræċċan, reċċan (“to stretch, extend”), from Proto-Germanic *rakjaną (“to stretch”), from Proto-Indo-European *reǵ- (“to make straight”). Related to Dutch rekken (“to stretch”), German recken (“to stretch”), Swedish räcka (“to suffice, reach, pass, last”).
Verb
rax (third-person singular simple present raxes, present participle raxing, simple past and past participle raxed)
- (Britain, dialectal, Northern England, Scotland, transitive) To stretch; stretch out.
- 1974, Guy Davenport, Tatlin!:
- Shoeless, he stood naked on his toes, his arms raxed upwards.
- 1974, Guy Davenport, Tatlin!:
- (Britain, dialectal, Northern England, Scotland, transitive) To reach out; reach or attain to.
- (Britain, dialectal, Northern England, Scotland, transitive) To extend the hand to; hand or pass something.
- Please rax me the pitcher.
- 1825, John Wilson, Robert Shelton Mackenzie, James Hogg, William Maginn and John Gibson Lockhart, Noctes Ambrosianæ No. XVIII, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, vol. 17:
- Wha the mischief set him on reading me? I'm sure he could never read onything in a dacent-like way since he was cleckit—rax me the Queen, and I'll let you hear a bit that will gar your hearts dinnle again—rax me the Queen, I say.
- (Britain, dialectal, Northern England, Scotland, intransitive) To perform the act of reaching or stretching; stretch one's self; reach for or try to obtain something
- (Britain, dialectal, chiefly Scotland, intransitive) To stretch after sleep.
Derived terms
- outrax
Related terms
Translations
to stretch after sleep
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Etymology 2
Shortening of barracks.
Noun
rax (plural rax or raxes)
- (video game slang) barracks
- 2014 March 19, Clinton "Fear" Loomis, Free to Play, 44:28:
- Eventually they just broke our base and took out every single one of our raxes.
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