rack one's brain

English

Alternative forms

• rack one's brains
• wrack one's brain
• 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, as well as cudgel one's brain / cudgel one's brains.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Verb

rack 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) (jiǎojìnnǎozhī), 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)
• German: sich den Kopf zerbrechen (de)
• Hungarian: töri a fejét (hu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• 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)

See also

• beat one's brains