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Reek vs Wreck - What's the difference?

reek | wreck |

As nouns the difference between reek and wreck

is that reek is a strong unpleasant smell or reek can be (ireland) a hill; a mountain while wreck is something or someone that has been ruined.

As verbs the difference between reek and wreck

is that reek is (archaic|intransitive) to be emitted or exhaled, emanate, as of vapour or perfume while wreck is to destroy violently; to cause severe damage to something, to a point where it no longer works, or is useless.

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

    * ----

    wreck

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something or someone that has been ruined.
    • He was an emotional wreck after the death of his wife.
  • The remains of something that has been severely damaged or worn down.
  • * Cowper
    • To the fair haven of my native home, / The wreck of what I was, fatigued I come.
  • An event in which something is damaged through collision.
  • * Addison
    • the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds
  • * Spenser
    • Hard and obstinate / As is a rock amidst the raging floods, / 'Gainst which a ship, of succour desolate, / Doth suffer wreck , both of herself and goods.
  • * J. R. Green
    • Its intellectual life was thus able to go on amidst the wreck of its political life.
  • (legal) Goods, etc. cast ashore by the sea after a shipwreck.
    • (Bouvier)

    Synonyms

    * crash * ruins

    Derived terms

    * shipwreck

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • 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!
  • * Shakespeare
    • Supposing that they saw the king's ship wrecked .
  • To ruin or dilapidate.
  • (Australia) 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.
  • * Daniel
    • Weak and envied, if they should conspire, / They wreck themselves.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Antonyms

    * build * construct * make * produce

    Derived terms

    * bewreck * wrecker * wreckage

    References