Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Destruction or ruin. Used chiefly in the phrase wrack and ruin.
- noun Wreckage, especially of a ship cast ashore.
- noun Chiefly British Violent destruction of a building or vehicle.
- noun Seaweed that has been cast ashore or dried.
- noun Any of various brown algae, especially rockweed or kelp.
- intransitive verb To cause the ruin of; wreck.
- intransitive verb To be wrecked.
- idiom (wrack (one's) brains/brain) To try hard to remember or think of something.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun That which is cast ashore by the waves.
- noun The destruction of a ship by winds or rocks or by the force of the waves; shipwreck. See
wreck . - noun Destruction; ruin.
- To destroy; make shipwreck of; wreck.
- noun A variant of
rack . - An obsolete misspelling of
rack .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A thin, flying cloud; a rack.
- transitive verb rare To rack; to torment.
- noun obsolete Wreck; ruin; destruction.
- noun Any marine vegetation cast up on the shore, especially plants of the genera Fucus, Laminaria, and Zostera, which are most abundant on northern shores.
- noun (Bot.) Coarse seaweed of any kind.
- noun (Bot.) eelgrass.
- transitive verb obsolete To wreck.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun archaic or literary
revenge ,persecution - noun archaic, except in dialects
ruin ,destruction - noun the remains; a
wreck - noun archaic remnant from a
shipwreck as washed ashore, or the right to claim such items - noun any marine vegetation cast up on shore, especially
seaweed of the genusFucus - noun
weeds , vegetation or rubbish floating on a river or pond - noun A high, flying clouds; a
rack - verb transitive to
wreck , especially a ship (usually in passive) - verb Alternative form of
rack , to cause to suffer pain etc.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the destruction or collapse of something
- noun dried seaweed especially that cast ashore
- noun growth of marine vegetation especially of the large forms such as rockweeds and kelp
- verb smash or break forcefully
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Wrack as a noun generally is confined to the phrase wrack and ruin.
Essential Guide to Business Style and Usage PAUL R. MARTIN 2002
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Wrack as a noun generally is confined to the phrase wrack and ruin.
Essential Guide to Business Style and Usage PAUL R. MARTIN 2002
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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."
vast planet 2007
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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.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, March 5, 1919 Various
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Where the glen lies a’ in wrack, wi’ the houses toom and black,
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This rack is however a variant of the now defunct word wrack, more usually known to us now as wreck.
pojken Diary Entry pojken 2008
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BTW, in this case I mean "wrack" literally -- a lot of the seaweed was bladder wrack.
Archive 2009-08-01 2009
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BTW, in this case I mean "wrack" literally -- a lot of the seaweed was bladder wrack.
fall 2009
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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.
Boing Boing 2006
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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).
perspective 2005
heypacksees commented on the word wrack
Wrack and ruin, but rack one’s brains.
February 13, 2012