Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use wreak in a sentence

27 example sentences · verb, noun

Wreak means to cause harm; to afflict; to inflict; to harm or injure; to let out harm. Example: “The earthquake wreaked havoc in the city.”

Examples of wreak by meaning

verbTo cause harm; to afflict; to inflict; to harm or injure; to let out harm.

  • The earthquake wreaked havoc in the city.
  • She wreaked her anger on his car.
  • On the Saturday, October 1, the torrential rains began to wreak damage east of Exeter.1960 December, “Talking of Trains: The railways and the Devon floods”, in Trains Illustrated, page 709

verbTo chasten, or chastise/chastize, or castigate, or punish, or smite.

  • The police abused their authority to wreak an innocent.
  • The criminal has been wreaked by the Judge to spend a year in prison.

verbTo inflict or take vengeance on.

  • At heart they hate their horrid fates, and so wreak their poor spite on me who stand for everything they have not, and for all they most crave and never can attain.1912 February–July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Under the Moons of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC...

nounRevenge; vengeance; furious passion; resentment.

  • However, no thought touch'd Minerva's mind, That any one should escape his wreak design'd.1903, George Chapman, Richard Herne Shepherd, Algernon Charles Swinburne, The Works of George Chapman
  • The second was, to take wreak for the cruel murder of his nephew Alfred, King Edward's brother, and of the Normans, which deed he ascribed chiefly to Harold.2003, John Foxe, John Cumming, Book of Martyrs and the Acts and Monuments of the Church

More sentences with wreak

  • The storm wreaked havoc on his garden.From the entry wreak havoc
  • After tearing his fave T-shirt unintentionally, my brother wreaked revenge on me by ripping my most prized blazer apart.From the entry revenge
  • Trumpism has evolved completely into Muskism, and it needs neither Trump nor Musk to wreak its havoc.2025 April 2, Charlie Pierce, “What Happens to Elon Musk and Muskism Now?”, in Esquire. From the entry Muskism
  • In practice, this technological transhumation would wreak havoc on the earth.2011, Andrea Nightingale, Once Out of Nature: Augustine on Time and the Body, →ISBN, page 4. From the entry transhuman
  • The prophet Nostradamus predicted the arrival of three anti-Christs who would wreak havoc on mankind.2009 September 9, Kathryn Shattuck, “What's On Today”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC…. From the entry anti-christ
  • That’s because, historically, recessions have often wreaked havoc on stock portfolios.2007 December 9, Paul J. Lim, “The ‘R’ Word Doesn’t Have to Be So Scary”, in The New York Times. From the entry r-word
  • As you might guess, the crotch strap can wreak havoc on the privates.1995, Michael Benge, Duane Raleigh, Rock: Tools and Technique, Elk Mountain Press, →ISBN, page 10. From the entry diaper harness
  • I’ve seen the havoc that that knowledge, when it’s not safe for the person to know, has wreaked on their life.2024 October 14, Doc Impossible, “Let's Fly”, in Stained Glass Woman, Substack. From the entry egg prime directive
  • Steven Adams and Enes Kanter wreaked havoc for Oklahoma City.2016 November 28, Mike Vorkunov, “Despite Flash of Rose’s Prime, Knicks Are Dazed by Westbrook and Thunder”, in The New York Times…. From the entry double double
  • Tenderis opened the door to find no heanlings huddling in hudder-mudder, preparing to wreak havoc with their devilshine.1977, Susan Kelz Sperling, Poplollies and bellibones. From the entry heanling
  • These, it was believed, would prevent the Arch-fiend from entering the charmed ring and wreaking vengeance upon the sorcerers.1965, Attila Zohar, Kings Cross Black Magic, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 116. From the entry sorcerer
  • The term ‘free gaf’ is music to any teenage ears in Dublin, while the term ‘wreak the gaf’ should fill any parent with dread.2019 November 7, Erike Sanker, “20 mad Dublin slang phrases that only make sense to locals”, in Ireland Before You Die (IB4UD). From the entry gaff
  • "Frankenfood" carries connotations of mad scientists dabbling in Things Man Was Not Meant To Know and releasing their products into the environment to wreak havoc.1994, Analog Science Fiction & Fact, volume 114, number 11, page 5. From the entry frankenword
  • Too much fun in the sun (and salt water and chlorinated pools) can wreak havoc with even the healthiest hair, leaving it dry and dull.1992, Kathleen Walas, Real Beauty Real Women, page 134. From the entry summerproof
  • The kobolde’s box was always kept locked, and only his master could open it without allowing the kobolde to escape and wreak havoc.1981 December, Carrol B. Fleming, “Why do elf stories still exist?”, in Science 81, volume 2, number 10, page 112, column 2. From the entry kobolde
  • Their arrival came as residents of the island struggled from the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Maria, but the young millionaires—some of them were billionaires—had another priority: creating "Puertopia."2020, Jeff John Roberts, Kings of Crypto: One Startup's Quest to Take Cryptocurrency Out of Silicon Valley and Onto Wall Street…. From the entry Puertopia
  • During certain weather conditions such as "Kona winds," the vog can settle over the Islands and wreak havoc with respiratory and other health conditions, especially asthma or emphysema.2013, Karen Anderson et al., Fodor’s 2014 Hawaii, New York, N.Y.: Fodor's Travel, →ISBN. From the entry vog
  • The implication is that the snapshotter, because of his unwillingness to slow down and perceive the complexity of the unmediated landscape, could only wreak havoc with his camera.2010, Eric Gordon, The Urban Spectator: American Concept Cities from Kodak to Google, UPNE, →ISBN, page 50. From the entry snapshotter
  • The administration’s actions, White wrote, “uniformly wreaked havoc not only on the lives of Plaintiffs here but on similarly situated F-1 nonimmigrants across the United States and continues do so.”2025 May 22, Devan Cole, “Federal judge blocks Trump administration from ending legal status for foreign students attending US schools”…. From the entry nonimmigrant

Meaning of wreak

  1. verb To cause harm; to afflict; to inflict; to harm or injure; to let out harm.
  2. verb To chasten, or chastise/chastize, or castigate, or punish, or smite.
  3. verb To inflict or take vengeance on.

Full definition of wreak

Questions about wreak in a sentence

How do you use wreak in a sentence?
Wreak is used as a verb and noun. For example: “The earthquake wreaked havoc in the city.”
What is a short sentence with wreak?
“She wreaked her anger on his car.”
What does wreak mean?
Wreak means to cause harm; to afflict; to inflict; to harm or injure; to let out harm.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wreak (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use wreak in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/wreak. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.