Wreck vs Dash - What's the difference?

As nouns the difference between wreck and dash

is that wreck is something or someone that has been ruined while dash is (typography) any of the following symbols: (''horizontal bar ).

As verbs the difference between wreck and dash

is that wreck is to destroy violently; to cause severe damage to something, to a point where it no longer works, or is useless while dash is to run quickly or for a short distance.

As an interjection dash is

(euphemistic) damn!.

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

dash

English

Noun

(es)

(typography) Any of the following symbols: (''horizontal bar ).

sometimes dash'' is also used colloquially to refer to a ''hyphen'' or ''minus sign .

A short run.

A small quantity of a liquid substance; less than 1/8 of a teaspoon.

Add a dash of vinegar

Vigor.

Aren't we full of dash this morning?

A dashboard.

* 1955 , edition, ISBN 0553249592, page 31:

The dash clock said 2:38 when.

One of the two symbols of Morse code.

(Nigeria) A bribe or gratuity.

* 1992 , George B. N. Ayittey, Africa betrayed (page 44)

The traditional practice of offering gifts or "dash " to chiefs has often been misinterpreted by scholars to provide a cultural explanation for the pervasive incidence of bribery and corruption in modern Africa.

* 2006 , Adiele Eberechukwu Afigbo, The Abolition of the Slave Trade in Southeastern Nigeria, 1885-1950 (page 99)

Writing in 1924 on a similar situation in Ugep, the political officer, Mr. S. T. Harvey noted: "In the old days there was no specified dowry but merely dashes given to the father-in-law

* 2008 , Lizzie Williams, Nigeria: The Bradt Travel Guide (page 84)

The only other times you'll be asked for a dash is from beggars.

(obsolete, euphemistic) A stand-in for a censored word, like "Devil" or "damn". (Compare deuce.)

* 1824 , "Kiddywinkle History, No. II", Blackwood's Magazine (15, May 1824) p. 540

I'll be dashed if I gan another step for less 'an oaf.

* 1853 , (William Makepeace Thackery), (The Newcomes)'', Chapter VI, serialized in ''Harper's New Monthly Magazine , (VIII, no. 43, Dec 1853) p. 118

Sir Thomas looks as if to ask what the dash is that to you! but wanting still to go to India again, and knowing how strong the Newcomes are in Leadenhall Street, he thinks it necessary to be civil to the young cub, and swallows his pride once more into his waistband.

*:Comment : Some editions leave this passage out. Of those that include it, some change the 'you!' to 'you?'.

* 1884 , (Lord Robert Gower), My Reminiscences'', reprinted in "The Evening Lamp", ''The Christian Union , (29) 22, (May 29, 1884) p. 524

Who the dash' is this person whom none of us know? and what the ' dash does he do here?

* 1939 , , (Uncle Fred in the Springtime) Chapter 8

I'll be dashed if I squash in with any domestic staff.

Hyponyms

* See also

Hypernyms

* punctuation mark

Derived terms

* dashing * dash off * em dash, en dash

Verb

(es)

To run quickly or for a short distance.

He dashed across the field.

(informal) To leave or depart.

I have to dash now. See you soon.

To destroy by striking (against).

He dashed the bottle against the bar and turned about to fight.

* 1897 , (Bram Stoker), (Dracula) Chapter 21

"`Silence! If you make a sound I shall take him and dash his brains out before your very eyes.'

* 1912 : (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (Tarzan of the Apes), Chapter 4

Kala was the youngest mate of a male called Tublat, meaning broken nose, and the child she had seen dashed to death was her first; for she was but nine or ten years old.

To throw violently.

The man was dashed from the vehicle during the accident.

* Francis Bacon

If you dash a stone against a stone in the bottom of the water, it maketh a sound.

To sprinkle; to splatter.

* Thomson

On each hand the gushing waters play, / And down the rough cascade all dashing fall.

(of hopes or dreams) To ruin; to destroy.

Her hopes were dashed when she saw the damage.

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=September 13 , author=Sam Lyon , title=Borussia Dortmund 1 - 1 Arsenal , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=Arsenal's hopes of starting their Champions League campaign with an away win were dashed when substitute Ivan Perisic's superb late volley rescued a point for Borussia Dortmund.}}

To dishearten; to sadden.

Her thoughts were dashed to melancholy.

To complete hastily, usually with down'' or ''off .

He dashed''' down his eggs'', ''she '''dashed off her homework

To draw quickly; jot.

* 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) Chapter 1

"Scarborough," Mrs. Flanders wrote on the envelope, and dashed a bold line beneath; it was her native town; the hub of the universe.

To throw in or on in a rapid, careless manner; to mix, reduce, or adulterate, by throwing in something of an inferior quality; to overspread partially; to bespatter; to touch here and there.

to dash''' wine with water; to '''dash paint upon a picture

* Addison

I take care to dash the character with such particular circumstance as may prevent ill-natured applications.

* Tennyson

The very source and fount of day / Is dashed with wandering isles of night.

Interjection

(en interjection)

(euphemistic) Damn!

Anagrams

* * * ----