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wreck definition

wreck (rek)

noun

  1. goods or wreckage cast ashore after a shipwreck
    1. the disabling or destruction of a ship by a storm or other disaster; shipwreck
    2. a ship that has been disabled or destroyed by a storm or other disaster
  2. the remains of anything that has been destroyed or badly damaged
  3. a person who is physically in very poor health or emotionally upset or exhausted
  4. a wrecking or being wrecked; destruction; ruin

Etymology: ME wrek < Anglo-Fr wrec < ON vrek, driftwood, wreckage, akin to MDu wrak, wrack: for IE base see wreak

transitive verb

  1. to destroy or damage badly
  2. to tear down or dismantle (a building, etc.)
  3. to bring to ruin or disaster; overthrow; thwart; defeat
  4. to destroy the health, or physical or mental soundness, of

intransitive verb

  1. to be wrecked
  2. to work as a wrecker

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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