Reference > Brewer’s Dictionary > Rack-rent.

 Rack.Rack and Manger. 
CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
 
Rack-rent.
 
The actual value or rent of a tenement, and not that modified form on which the rates and taxes are usually levied. (Saxon, ræcan, to stretch; Dutch, racken.)   1
        “A rent which is equivalent, or nearly equivalent in amount, to the full annual value of the land, is a rack-rent.”—Encyclopœdia Britannica, vol. xx. p. 403.
 


 Rack.Rack and Manger. 

 
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