rack and pinion

1. 1.

   a wheel gear (the pinion) meshes with a toothed rack; converts rotary to reciprocating motion (and vice versa)

   Broadergear

Questions about rack and pinion

What does rack and pinion mean?

rack and pinion means "a wheel gear (the pinion) meshes with a toothed rack; converts rotary to reciprocating motion (and vice versa)".

Is rack and pinion a common word?

rack and pinion is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.