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Rack and Ruin

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Utter destitution. Here “rack” is a variety of wrack and wreck.

“The worst of all University snobs are those unfortunates who go to rack and ruin from their desire to ape their betters.”—Thackeray: Book of Snobs, chap. xv. p. 87.

 

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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.

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Raboin or Rabuino (French)
Rabsheka
Raby (Aurora)
Races
Races (Lengths run)
Rachaders
Rache
Rack
Rack-rent
Rack and Manger
Rack and Ruin
Racket
Racy
Racy Style
Radcliffe Library (Oxford)
Radegaste
Radegund
Radevore
Radical
Radiometer
Radit Usque ad Cutem