What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Reek vs Wrack - What's the difference?

reek | wrack |

As nouns the difference between reek and wrack

is that reek is a strong unpleasant smell or reek can be (ireland) a hill; a mountain while wrack is wreck.

As a verb reek

is (archaic|intransitive) to be emitted or exhaled, emanate, as of vapour or perfume.

reek

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) rek, ‘smoke, fog’, Albanian regj ‘to tan’).Vladimir Orel, A Handbook of Germanic Etymology , s.vv. “*raukiz”, “*reukanan”(Leiden: Brill, 2003), 299:303.

Noun

(-)
  • A strong unpleasant smell.
  • Vapor; steam; smoke; fume.
  • * Shakespeare
    • As hateful to me as the reek of a limekiln.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) reken ‘to smoke’, from (etyl) . See above.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (archaic) To be emitted or exhaled, emanate, as of vapour or perfume.
  • To have or give off a strong, unpleasant smell.
    • You reek of perfume.
    Your fridge reeks of egg.
  • (figuratively) To be evidently associated with something unpleasant.
    • The boss appointing his nephew as a director reeks of nepotism.

    Etymology 3

    Probably a transferred use (after Irish cruach stack (of corn), pile, mountain, hill) of a variant of rick (with which it is cognate).

    Noun

    (s)
  • (Ireland) A hill; a mountain.

    • References

    * * * * * Notes:

    Anagrams

    * ----

    wrack

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), from a merger of (etyl) (m), .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (archaic, dialectal, or, literary) Vengeance; revenge; persecution; punishment; consequence; trouble.
  • (archaic, except in dialects) Ruin; destruction.
  • The remains; a wreck.

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To execute vengeance; avenge.
  • To worry; tease; torment.

    • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (and (etyl)) (m) (cognate with (etyl) (m), (etyl) (m), (etyl) (m), (etyl) (m), (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (archaic) Remnant from a shipwreck as washed ashore, or the right to claim such items.
  • Any marine vegetation cast up on shore, especially seaweed of the genus Fucus .
  • Weeds, vegetation or rubbish floating on a river or pond.
  • A high flying cloud; a rack.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1892 , year_published=2011 , edition=HTML , editor= , author=Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , title=The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , isbn= , page= , passage=A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of the clouds. }}
    Derived terms
    * channelled wrack * flat wrack * spiral wrack

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To wreck, especially a ship (usually in passive ).
  • To cause to suffer pain, etc.

    • Anagrams

    *