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Wreck vs Havoc - What's the difference?

wreck | havoc |

As nouns the difference between wreck and havoc

is that wreck is something or someone that has been ruined while havoc is widespread devastation, destruction.

As verbs the difference between wreck and havoc

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 havoc is to pillage.

As an interjection havoc is

a cry in war as the signal for indiscriminate slaughter.

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

    havoc

    English

    Alternative forms

    * havock (e.g. in Milton)

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • widespread devastation, destruction
  • * Bible, Acts viii. 3
    • As for Saul, he made havoc of the church.
  • * Addison
    • Ye gods, what havoc does ambition make / Among your works!
  • :* {{quote-book
    • , year=1918 , year_published=2008 , edition=HTML , editor= , author=Edgar Rice Burroughs , title=The People that Time Forgot , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , isbn= , page= , passage=But when I had come to that part of the city which I judged to have contained the relics I sought I found havoc that had been wrought there even greater than elsewhere. }}
  • mayhem

    • Usage notes

    The noun havoc is most often used in the set phrase wreak havoc. Old Hungarian Goulash?, The Grammarphobia Blog, October 31, 2008

    Derived terms

    * play havoc, raise havoc, wreak havoc, cry havoc, break havoc

    Verb

  • To pillage.
  • * 1599 , , Henry V , Act I, Scene II:
    • To tear and havoc more than she can eat.
  • To cause .

    • Usage notes

    As with other verbs ending in vowel + -c, The gerund-participle is sometimes spelled havocing, and the preterite and past participle is sometimes spelled havoced; for citations using these spellings, see their respective entries. However, the spellings havocking and havocked are far more common. Compare panic, picnic.

    References

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • A cry in war as the signal for indiscriminate slaughter.
  • * Toone
    • Do not cry havoc , where you should but hunt / With modest warrant.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Cry "havoc", and let slip the dogs of war!