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wrack¹ Definition

wrack (rak)

noun

  1. destruction; ruin
  2. a wrecked ship
    1. wreckage
    2. a fragment of something that has been destroyed
  3. seaweed or other marine plant life cast up on shore

Etymology: ME wrak, damage, wrecked ship < MDu wrak, a wreck, wrecked ship; akin to OE wræc, misery, something driven (< wrecan, to wreak)

transitive verb, intransitive verb

Archaic to wreck or be wrecked

wrack² Definition

wrack (rak)

transitive verb

rack; esp.,

  1. to subject to extreme mental or physical suffering; torture
  2. to disturb violently; convulse

Etymology: altered (infl. by wrack) < rack

wrack³ Definition

wrack (rak)

noun

a rack of clouds or other vapor

Etymology: altered < rack

wrack Usage Examples

Object

  • country: This dead-end job was the best I could do in a country wracked with unemployment ( over 30 % ).
  • body: Next to her, a young man sat on the kerbside, his body wracked in grief as he cried and cried.

Subject

  • guilt: Wracked by guilt, Billie is now locked into a triangle - a kind of emotional Bermuda triangle of lost souls.
  • conflict: And it cannot be fulfilled if this part of the continent remains wracked by conflict.
  • war: During the twentieth century Spain was wracked by civil war.
  • violence: The US-led coalition is also trying to restore calm in cities wracked by violence and looting since the regime lost power.
  • instability: Throughout the first half of the 1990s, Bulgaria was wracked by political instability and strikes.

Converse of subject

  • dominate: The dark areas are dominated by serrated wrack Fucus serratus.

Adjective modifier

  • knotted: Ascophyllum nodosum ( egg or knotted wrack ) is a common brown seaweed which grows on sheltered rocky shores all around Britain.
  • serrated: The reason is that the serrated wrack grows very quickly, in a matter of months.

Noun used with modifier

  • bladder: On exposed shores the bladder wrack can be found in the form Fucus vesiculosus linearis.
  • spiral: The channeled wrack colonizes higher up the shore than the spiral wrack.

Followed by a transitive particle

  • up: But most of us don't and record numbers of us are in debt and wracked up thousands on our plastic.

Preposition: with

  • guilt: Wracked with guilt, Frasier goes to her live show to talk her out of it.
  • pain: Of course it was awful, and she really was wracked with awful pain.

Preposition: by

  • guilt: Wracked by guilt, Billie is now locked into a triangle - a kind of emotional Bermuda triangle of lost souls.
  • conflict: And it cannot be fulfilled if this part of the continent remains wracked by conflict.
  • war: During the twentieth century Spain was wracked by civil war.
  • violence: The US-led coalition is also trying to restore calm in cities wracked by violence and looting since the regime lost power.
  • instability: Throughout the first half of the 1990s, Bulgaria was wracked by political instability and strikes.

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