rack rent
1
9.0
- noun
- /ræk rɛnt/
- Archaic
:
alquiler excesivo
- The tenants organized a protest against the unfair rack rent that was draining their savings.
Examples
-
Many families struggle to afford the rack rent demanded by landlords in the city.
-
Rural rack-rent, and we've no legal recourse.
Fiction book (1994) -
The formation of the Ladies' Land League on 31 January 1881 began a period of resistance to rack rents and evictions that was far more fervent and radically nationalist under the direction of the "ladies" and Anna Parnell than it had been under male leadership.
Academic text (1991) -
High rack rent in the area has forced many residents to seek cheaper housing options.
How High
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'excessively high/extortionate rent' is directly derivable from combining 'rack' (to obtain by force or extortion) with 'rent' (payment for property). This is a straightforward compositional pattern — rent that is 'racked' (exacted) — so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the idiomatic sense.
Etymology
The term rack rent may come from the old torture device called the rack, which stretched and squeezed people. So people compared greedy landlords to that machine and said they charged rack rent, meaning 'very high' or 'too much' rent.