rack one's brain

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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, as well as cudgel one's brain / cudgel one's brains.

28 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Catalan: escalfar-se el cap — struggle to think of something
• Chinese Mandarin: 絞盡腦汁 /绞尽脑汁 (jiǎojìn nǎozhī) — struggle to think of something
• Czech: lámat si hlavu — struggle to think of something
• Dutch: zich suf piekeren — struggle to think of something
• Esperanto: cerbumi — struggle to think of something
• Finnish: miettiä päänsä puhki — struggle to think of something
• French: se creuser la tête — struggle to think of something
• French: se creuser les méninges — struggle to think of something
• French: se creuser la cervelle — struggle to think of something
• French: se casser la tête — struggle to think of something
• German: sich den Kopf zerbrechen — struggle to think of something
• Hungarian: töri a fejét — struggle to think of something
• Icelandic: brjóta heilann — struggle to think of something
• Italian: scervellarsi — struggle to think of something
• Italian: arrovellarsi — struggle to think of something
• Italian: lambiccarsi il cervello — struggle to think of something
• Italian: spremersi le meningi — struggle to think of something
• Japanese: 脳漿を絞る (nōshō o shiboru) — struggle to think of something
• Polish: łamać sobie głowę — struggle to think of something
• Polish: zachodzić w głowę — struggle to think of something
• Portuguese: quebrar a cabeça — struggle to think of something
• Russian: лома́ть го́лову (lomátʹ gólovu) — struggle to think of something
• Spanish: devanarse los sesos — struggle to think of something
• Spanish: romperse la cabeza — struggle to think of something
• Turkish: kafa patlatmak — struggle to think of something
• Walloon: si tuzer moirt — struggle to think of something
• Walloon: si casser l' tiesse — struggle to think of something
• Welsh: crafu'ch pen — struggle to think of something