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Wreak vs Rage - What's the difference?

wreak | rage |

As verbs the difference between wreak and rage

is that wreak is to cause, inflict or let out, especially if causing harm or injury while rage is .

As a noun wreak

is (archaic|literary) revenge; vengeance; furious passion; resentment.

wreak

English

Etymology 1

(etyl) wrecan, from (etyl) ; cognate via PIE with Latin urgere (English urge), and distantly cognate to English wreck.

Verb

  • To cause, inflict or let out, especially if causing harm or injury.
    • The earthquake wreaked havoc in the city.
    She wreaked her anger on his car.
  • * Macaulay
    • Now was the time to be avenged on his old enemy, to wreak a grudge of seventeen years.
  • (archaic) To inflict or take vengeance on.
  • * 1874 ,
    • ''their woe
    ''Broods maddening inwardly and scorns to wreak
    ''Itself abroad;
  • * 1856-1885 —
    • Kill the foul thief, and wreak me for my son.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1917 , year_published=2008 , edition=HTML , editor= , author=Edgar Rice Burroughs , title=A Princess of Mars , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , isbn= , page= , passage=At heart they hate their horrid fates, and so wreak their poor spite on me who stand for everything they have not, … }}
  • (archaic) To take vengeance for.
  • * Fairfax
    • Come wreak his loss, whom bootless ye complain.
    Usage notes
    The verb wreak'' is generally used in the form “wreak ''damage or harm of some sort'' (on ''something )”, and is often used in the set phrase wreak havoc, though “wreak damage”, “wreak destruction”, and “wreak revenge” are also common. Not to be confused with wreck, with similar meaning of destruction and similar etymological roots; common confusion in misspelling wreck havoc. It has become common to use wrought, the original past tense and participle for work, as the past tense and past participle for wreak'', as in ''wrought havoc'' (i.e. ''worked havoc'' for ''wreaked havoc''), due both to the fact that the weak form ''worked'' has edged out ''wrought'' from its former role almost entirely (except as an adjective referring usually to hand-worked metal goods), and via confusion from the ''wr-'' beginning both ''wreak'' and ''wrought , and probably by analogy with seek).
    Derived terms
    * wreak havoc

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) wreke, wrake, Northern Middle English variants of wreche, influenced later by Etymology 1, above. Compare (etyl) wraak.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (archaic, literary) Revenge; vengeance; furious passion; resentment.
  • * 1903 , George Chapman, Richard Herne Shepherd, Algernon Charles Swinburne, The Works of George Chapman :
    • However, no thought touch'd Minerva's mind, That any one should escape his wreak design'd.
  • * 2003 , John Foxe, John Cumming, Book of Martyrs and the Acts and Monuments of the Church :
    • For three causes Duke William entered this land to subdue Harold. One was, for that it was to him given by King Edward his nephew. 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.
  • * 2006 , The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night - Volume 2 - Page 188:
    • Would that before my death I might but see my son The empery in my stead over the people hold And rush upon his foes and take on them his wreak , At push of sword and pike, in fury uncontrolled.
  • (archaic, literary) Punishment; retribution; payback.
  • * 1885': Of a surety none murdered the damsel but I; take her '''wreak on me this moment — Sir Richard Burton, ''The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night , Night 19

    • References

    Anagrams

    * English irregular verbs

    rage

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Violent uncontrolled anger.
  • *
  • *:They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.
  • A current fashion or fad.
  • :
  • (lb) Any vehement passion.
  • *(Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)
  • *:in great rage of pain
  • * (1800-1859)
  • *:He appeased the rage of hunger with some scraps of broken meat.
  • *(Nathaniel Hawthorne) (1804-1864)
  • *:convulsed with a rage of grief

    • Synonyms

    * fury * ire

    Derived terms

    * pavement rage * road rage * roid rage * trolley rage

    Verb

    (rag)
  • (label) To act or speak in heightened anger.
  • (label) To move with great violence, as a storm etc.
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
    • The madding wheels / Of brazen chariots raged ; dire was the noise.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1892, author=(James Yoxall)
    • , chapter=5, title= The Lonely Pyramid , passage=The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom.
  • * 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) Chapter 1
    • "The two women murmured over the spirit-lamp, plotting the eternal conspiracy of hush and clean bottles while the wind raged and gave a sudden wrench at the cheap fastenings.
  • * 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/nyregion/new-jersey-continues-to-cope-with-hurricane-sandy.html?hp]," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):
    • Though the storm raged up the East Coast, it has become increasingly apparent that New Jersey took the brunt of it.
  • *
  • (label) To enrage.
    • (Shakespeare)

    Anagrams

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