Rack and Manger

Housekeeping.

To lie at rack and manger. To live at reckless expense.

“When Virtue was a country maide,

And had no skill to set up trade,

She came up with a carrier’s jade,

And lay at rack and manger.”

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.