Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Destruction or ruin.
- n. A remnant or vestige of something destroyed.
- n. Wreckage, especially of a ship cast ashore.
- n. Chiefly British Violent destruction of a building or vehicle.
- n. Dried seaweed.
- n. Marine vegetation, especially kelp.
- v. To cause the ruin of; wreck.
- v. To be wrecked.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. That which is cast ashore by the waves. Specifically
- n. The destruction of a ship by winds or rocks or by the force of the waves; shipwreck. See wreck.
- n. Destruction; ruin.
- To destroy; make shipwreck of; wreck.
- n. A variant of rack.
- An obsolete misspelling of rack.
Wiktionary
- n. revenge, persecution
- n. ruin, destruction
- n. the remains; a wreck
- n. remnant from a shipwreck as washed ashore, or the right to claim such items
- n. any marine vegetation cast up on shore, especially seaweed of the genus Fucus
- n. weeds, vegetation or rubbish floating on a river or pond
- v. to wreck, especially a ship (usually in passive)
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A thin, flying cloud; a rack.
- v. To rack; to torment.
- n. Wreck; ruin; destruction.
- n. Any marine vegetation cast up on the shore, especially plants of the genera Fucus, Laminaria, and Zostera, which are most abundant on northern shores.
- n. Coarse seaweed of any kind.
- v. To wreck.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the destruction or collapse of something
- n. dried seaweed especially that cast ashore
- n. growth of marine vegetation especially of the large forms such as rockweeds and kelp
- v. smash or break forcefully
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old English wræc, punishment (influenced by Middle Dutch wrak, shipwreck).Middle English wrak, from Middle Dutch.
Examples
“Wrack as a noun generally is confined to the phrase wrack and ruin.”
Simon & Schuster: Essential Guide to Business Style and Usage
“I think it's called wrack line because "wrack" is another name for marine vegetation -- a lot of seaweeds have wrack in the name -- but it may also come from wrack as in remnants of wreckage and destruction as in "gone to wrack and ruin.”
“Mr. RAPER sought an assurance that no "wrack" -- which appears to be a term of art in the timber trade -- should be used in the houses to be erected under the Government's new housing scheme.”
“Where the glen lies a’ in wrack, wi’ the houses toom and black,”
“This rack is however a variant of the now defunct word wrack, more usually known to us now as wreck.”
“BTW, in this case I mean "wrack" literally -- a lot of the seaweed was bladder wrack.”
“But next year's turmoil is always lurking around the corner -- and every generation will get a chance to experience some kind of wrack and roll.”
“Not since the Civil War have American cities been subject to the kind of wrack and ruin that total war causes and, of course, no one alive today remembers the Civil War today so Americans have a sanitized view of war (Canadians too, I might add).”
“I racked my brain (Though the phrase wrack your brain is in common usage, rack is the original form.”
“Our faces were concealed by the "wrack" that covered the stones; and the”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘wrack’.
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Archaic
abide, abjure, abroad, adamant, afield, aforetime, aghast, anon, apace, argent, assuage, aught and 327 more...
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Especially
Being a list of words which have "especially" in their definitions.
wringing-machine, especially, device, field, scrip, hit, catch, take, buck, flip, effluvium, proselyte and 100 more...

heypacksees Wrack and ruin, but rack one’s brains. Feb 13, 2012