at rack and manger

English

Adverb

at rack and manger (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic, archaic) plentifully and at another's expense.
   • 1742, Roger North, The Life of the Right Honourable Francis North […] :

     At that Time, his Lordship took his Brother into his Family, and a Coach and Servants aſſign'd him out of his Equipages; and all at Rack and Manger, requiring only 200 l. a Year

   • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, (please specify |book=I or IV, or the page):

     tearing out the bowels of St. Edmundsbury Convent (its larders namely and cellars) in the most ruinous way, by living at rack and manger there.

   • 1859, Henry Morley, Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair:

     For we are not as other hypocrites, reprobates, and enemies of the state, but unto us thou hast given, from them thou hast taken, (blessed be thy name A Lard) they are at rack and manger, but we are at full meal

References

• “rack”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.