Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To inflict (vengeance or punishment) upon a person.
- v. To express or gratify (anger, malevolence, or resentment); vent.
- v. To bring about; cause: wreak havoc.
- v. Archaic To take vengeance for; avenge.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To revenge; avenge: with either the offense or the person offended as the object.
- To execute; inflict: as, to wreak vengeance on an enemy.
- n. Revenge; vengeance; furious passion; resentment.
- n. Punishment.
- An erroneous spelling of reck.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To cause, inflict or let out, especially if causing harm or injury.
- v. archaic To inflict or take vengeance on.
- n. obsolete Punishment; retribution, revenge.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. obsolete To reck; to care.
- v. Archaic To revenge; to avenge.
- v. To execute in vengeance or passion; to inflict; to hurl or drive.
- n. obsolete Revenge; vengeance; furious passion; resentment.
WordNet 3.0
- v. cause to happen or to occur as a consequence
Etymologies
- A Northern variant of wreche, influenced later by Etymology 1, above. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English wreken, from Old English wrecan. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Cold Case has all the train wreak-y elements that Law & Order has that makes it impossible to turn off: A violent crime in the first few minutes?”
“To vote for an opposition party out of pure spite regardless of the train wreak they have made of international and domestic policy is pure absurdity.”
Obama, Clinton supporters both say Clinton attacking unfairly
“I have opened my gardens to tourists and they stomp round the manor with glee, yet the cost of repairing the damage they wreak is not even recouped by the fee.”
“What a fucking train wreak piece of dog shit that was.”
“(Of course, I should disclose that I sat through the colossal train wreak that was _Transformers: ROTF_ the night before.”
Mann’s stubborn and fascinating “Public Enemies” » Scene-Stealers
“Althouse: It is "wreak," not "reak" and certainly not "reek" havoc, in case anyone is puzzling over it”
“I've been briskly informed in a previous comment trail that it's "wreak" havoc and thus also chaos not wreck but other than that, what's not to love about this.”
“That's a big body that can run around and kind of wreak havoc, and linebackers obviously tackle for a living," Childress said.”
“I'm more than up for seeing Mirage, Hound, and Wheeljack though I call fake based on the misspelling of "wreak" and "sight" on the first page.”
“Some non-native species are harmless, but others wreak havoc on other species, human health and the economy”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘wreak’.
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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amber words
amber words is the term I use for words that are all but fossilized, in the sense that their use is always in the context of a single expression. Examples include caboodle, dudgeon, umbrage
sanctum, akimbo, amok, riddance, druthers, trove, caboodle, immemorial, blithering, dudgeon, swaddling, askance and 110 more...
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mccaff's Words
schadenfreude, defenestration, monogamous, epipsychidion, chintz, befall, brouhaha, shenanigans, hooligans, lambasted, servitude, portcullis and 113 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
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MsHalston's Words
theoretically, insufferable, apolitico, milquetoast, egregious, aplomb, elan, fraught, flummox, befrocked, moll, molten and 605 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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persnickety parlance
behoove, ebullient, insouciant, insipient, froth, quandary, quixotic, tendril, maktub, furrow, furl, anastrophe and 1076 more...
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Another day, a whole nother list
rump, spot on, flank, outflank, rank, bedeck, leafhopper, apocope, academic, set-to, point of no return, cloy and 210 more...
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Thrown - about tossed - Words
bal-; bol-; -bol; -ble and incau(gh)tious others
ballistic, ballad, symbol, bolide, ballet, problem, ball, parabola, parable, amphibole, boule, diabolical and 184 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, W
washboard, winterbourne, winze, wirble, waterway, windrow, winceyette, waft, whiffletree, wheelbarrow, whicker, wacky and 170 more...
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set 9
tryst, ruse, enrapture, epithet, chaffing, untenable, agape, obsequious, prattle, comestible, rueful, aquiline and 80 more...
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OrbitalCombustion's Words
nepenthe, phrontistery, peregrination, pervicacious, sinistrality, phallogocentric, prolixity, leptokurtic, ineffable, haecceity, lucubration, vicissitudes and 1026 more...
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Word List 2
I don't want to have a list that's too large. So i'll make two
coccyx, memorandum, crepuscule, oodles, ambiance, starchy, condemnation, triskaidekaphobia, wreak, grotto, emanate, annul and 38 more...
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Silent "W"
wrist, wring, wrestle, wrap, write, whole, answer, wrong, two, sword, wren, wrinkle and 12 more...
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General
signees, centroids, Prolonged, wreak, havoc, canals, earmarked, irrigation, scratch, belated
Tweets
Looking for tweets for wreak.
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