rack one's brain

English

Alternative forms

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.^[1]

Verb

rack one's brain

(idiomatic) 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 (zh), 绞尽脑汁 (zh) (jiǎojìn nǎozhī)
Dutch: zich suf piekeren
Finnish: miettiä päänsä puhki
French: se creuser la tête (fr), se casser les méninges
German: sich den Kopf zerbrechen (de)
Hungarian: töri a fejét (hu)

Icelandic: brjóta heilann
Italian: scervellare, arrovellarsi
Japanese: 脳漿を絞る (nōshō o shiboru)
Portuguese: quebrar a cabeça (pt)
Russian: лома́ть го́лову (ru) impf (lomátʹ gólovu)
Turkish: kafa patlatmak (tr)
Walloon: si tuzer moirt (wa), si casser l' tiesse (wa)

References

↑ Michael Quinion (2011-11-19), “Wrack or rack?”, in World Wide Words‎

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