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Wreck vs Wrack - What's the difference?

wreck | wrack |

As nouns the difference between wreck and wrack

is that wreck is something or someone that has been ruined while wrack is vengeance; revenge; persecution; punishment; consequence; trouble.

As verbs the difference between wreck and wrack

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 wrack is to execute vengeance; avenge.

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

    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

    *