wreck
/ˈɹɛk/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
dialectal/ˈɹæk/
wreck noun: something or someone that has been ruined.
Noun
wreck (plural wrecks)
- Something or someone that has been ruined.
- He was an emotional wreck after the death of his wife.
- Synonyms:
- basket case, mess
- The remains of something that has been severely damaged or worn down.
- To the fair haven of my native home, / The vvreck of vvhat I was, fatigued I come, […]1782, William Cowper, “Retirement”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 277
- In 2006, 18-year-old Nikki Catsouras was killed in a car wreck in Lake Forest.2015 July 16, Rob Hayes, “Santa Monica nonprofit pushing Google for 'Right to be Forgotten'”, in KABC-TV
- An event in which something is damaged through collision.
- Hard and obſtinate, / As is a rocke amidſt the raging floods: / gaynſt vvhich a ſhip of ſuccour deſolate, / doth ſuffer vvreck both of her ſelfe and goods.1595, Edmunde Spenser [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “[Amoretti.] Sonnet LVI”, in Amoretti and Epithalamion. […], London: […] [Peter Short] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, signature [D5], verso
- the wrecks of matter and the crush of worlds1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 57
- A shipwreck: an event in which a ship is heavily damaged or destroyed.
- Goods, etc. cast ashore by the sea after a shipwreck.
- 2. ... Wreck includes the cargo, stores and tackle of a vessel and all parts of a vessel separated from the vessel, and the property of persons who belong to, are on board or have quitted a vessel that is wrecked, stranded or in distress at any place in Canada.1985, “Criminal Code (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-46)”, in Justice Canada, retrieved 09 Sep 2021
- A large number of birds that have been brought to the ground, injured or dead, by extremely adverse weather.
- [I]n 1952 more than 7,000 were involved in such a "wreck" in Britain and Ireland.1988, Michael Cady, Rob Hume, editors, The Complete Book of British Birds, page 89
Verb
wreck (third-person singular simple present wrecks, present participle wrecking, simple past and past participle wrecked)
- To destroy violently; to cause severe damage to something, to a point where it no longer works, or is useless.
- He wrecked the car in a collision.
- That adulterous hussy wrecked my marriage!
- To ruin or dilapidate.
- To plunder goods from wrecked ships.
- To dismantle wrecked vehicles or other objects, to reclaim any useful parts.
- To involve in a wreck; hence, to cause to suffer ruin; to balk of success, and bring disaster on.
- Weak and envy'd, if they should conspire, / They wreck themselves, and he hath his Desire.1595, Samuel Daniel, “(please specify the folio number)”, in The First Fowre Bookes of the Ciuile Wars between the Two Houses of Lancaster and Yorke, London: […] P[eter] Short for Simon Waterson...
- To be involved in a wreck; to be damaged or destroyed.
- […] Mrs. Marleen Ketchum was not quite certain if the train wrecked or if the volcano blew its top. It took a moment before she was certain it had to be the passenger train.2020, Marti Talbott, McShane's Bride, page 112
wreck meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
wreck in Tamil
- கடற்சேதம், முறிந்துடைந்த துண்டுகள், மோதியுடை, சேதப்படுத்து, அழி, பாழாக்கு
wreck in Urdu
- بربادی, غارتگری, برباد کرنا, غارت کرنا
wreck in Bengali
- বিনাশ, জাহাজ ডুবি, ধ্বংস করা, মারাত্মকভাবে ক্ষতিগ্রস্থ করা
wreck in Telugu
- a wreck, waste, ruin
- పాడు pāḍu
More languagesFewer languages
- wreck in Malayalam
- തകർക്കുക takaṟkkuka
- wreck in Kannada
- ನೌಕಾಘಾತ, ಸಮುದ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ಮುಳುಗುವುದು ನಾಶ, ಬಂಡೆಗೆ ತಗುಲಿ ಆದ ಆಘಾತ, ಆಶಾಭಗ್ನ
- wreck in Arabic
- تَصَادُّم taṣāddum
Examples of wreck in a sentence
- Its intellectual life was thus able to go on amidst the wreck of its political life.1883, John Richard Green, The Conquest of England:
- Supposing that they saw the king's ship wrecked.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First...
Synonyms of wreck
Antonyms
Forms of wreck
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | wrecks |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | wrecks |
| present participle | wrecking |
| past participle | wrecked |
| past | wrecked |
Origin of wreck
From Middle English wrek, from Anglo-Norman wrek, from Old Norse *wrek (whence Norwegian rek, Icelandic rek, Swedish vrak, Danish vrag), from Proto-Germanic *wrekaną (“to pursue”, whence Old English wrecan (English wreak), Old Saxon wrekan, Old High German rëhhan, Gothic 𐍅𐍂𐌹𐌺𐌰𐌽 (wrikan)), from Proto-Indo-European *wreg- (“to track; to hunt; to follow”).
Words formed from wreck
Phrases with wreck
Words that rhyme with wreck
44 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about wreck
- What does wreck mean?
- Wreck means something or someone that has been ruined.
- What is wreck in Tamil?
- Wreck in Tamil is கடற்சேதம், முறிந்துடைந்த துண்டுகள், மோதியுடை. See Wreck meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use wreck in a sentence?
- Its intellectual life was thus able to go on amidst the wreck of its political life.
- What part of speech is wreck?
- Wreck can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce wreck?
- Wreck is pronounced /ˈɹɛk/.
- What is the plural of wreck?
- The plural of wreck is wrecks.
Words near wreck in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wreck (page history and authors); wreck (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); wreck (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); wreck (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); పాడు (Telugu) (page history and authors); തകർക്കുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); wreck (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-wreck.ogg.
Cite this entry: “wreck.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wreck. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.