wreck
Americannoun
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wrecks
plural
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any building, structure, or thing reduced to a state of ruin.
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wreckage, goods, etc., remaining above water after a shipwreck, especially when cast ashore.
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the ruin or destruction of a vessel in the course of navigation; shipwreck.
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a vessel in a state of ruin from disaster at sea, on rocks, etc.
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the ruin or destruction of anything.
the wreck of one's hopes.
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a person of ruined health; someone in bad shape physically or mentally.
The strain of his work left him a wreck.
verb (used with object)
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wrecks,
present (3rd person singular)
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wrecked,
past participle, past
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wrecking
present participle
verb
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to involve in or suffer disaster or destruction
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(tr) to cause the wreck of (a ship)
noun
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the accidental destruction of a ship at sea
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the ship so destroyed
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maritime law goods cast ashore from a wrecked vessel
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a person or thing that has suffered ruin or dilapidation
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the remains of something that has been destroyed
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old-fashioned the act of wrecking or the state of being wrecked; ruin or destruction
Usage
What does wreck mean? To wreck something is to destroy, ruin, or severely damage it. It’s commonly used in the context of the destruction of physical objects, as in He wrecked the car when he hit the tree. Nonphysical things can also be wrecked, as in Tom’s poor planning wrecked his chances of finishing his homework in time to go to baseball practice. Wreck is also commonly used as a noun referring to something that has been destroyed or turned into a ruin, such as a building, as in All that was left of the house after the fire was a burnt wreck. Wreck is often used figuratively to describe a person who is in bad health or who is emotionally or mentally unwell, as in Stress reduces him to a nervous wreck. Wreck is also used in a more specific way to refer to sunken or destroyed ships, as in The diver went to the bottom of the sea to explore the wreck. The word shipwreck means the same thing. The word wreckage refers to the remains of something that has been wrecked. Example: I cried so much at the end of that movie that I was an emotional wreck for the rest of the day.
Synonym Usage
See spoil.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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wrecksimple
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wreckssimple
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have wreckedperfect
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has wreckedperfect
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am wreckingprogressive
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are wreckingprogressive
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is wreckingprogressive
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have been wreckingperfect progressive
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has been wreckingperfect progressive
Past
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wreckedsimple
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had wreckedperfect
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was wreckingprogressive
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were wreckingprogressive
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had been wreckingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wreck
First recorded in 1200–50; (noun) Middle English wrec, wrech, wrek, from Old Danish wrækæ “wreck”; (verb) late Middle English, derivative of the noun
Explanation
A wreck is something that's been destroyed. Your hair might be a wreck after a bad day at the barber. Your car might be a wreck after you hit a telephone pole. Your house might be a wreck after a visit from 3-year-old twins. You might be an emotional wreck after a fight with your boyfriend. A sunken ship is a wreck, or a shipwreck. When you hit that telephone pole, you’ve had a wreck, and you can also call your mangled car a wreck. When you’re next heading out with the car keys, you mom might say, "Don't wreck the car!,” hoping you’ll bring it back in one piece.
Vocabulary lists containing wreck
"Return to Titanic" and "Talking with Robert Ballard"
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Commonly Confused Words, List 3
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Apple reports earnings today after emerging relatively unscathed from last week’s tech wreck.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 2, 2026
Prior to this discovery, the world’s oldest shipwreck was a wreck off the coast of Dokos, in Greece, thought to have been from about 4,200 years ago.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 26, 2026
Previously, the record holder was a wreck off the coast of Dokos, an island in southern Greece, which dates to about 4,200 years ago.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
Coissac said he had spoken to one survivor of the wreck who came from the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, where rebels are battling the federal government in a recent flare-up of violence.
From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2026
Ever since he'd been injured in the war, he was a nervous wreck.
From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple
The man who did so much to associate the country with the red paint and horsepower explicitly avoided hiring his own countrymen after too many of them died in fiery wrecks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026
These machines could map the precise locations of dangerous munitions and help researchers monitor deteriorating wrecks more closely.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 14, 2026
It struck musicians and illustrators, YouTubers and Instagrammers, self-proclaimed anxious wrecks and the freest of spirits.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026
“I love my sisters so much that the idea that something could happen to them — it wrecks me,” Haim says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
In fact, I suppose you’d say it was a multi-class neighborhood because both the houses and the kids ranged from wrecks to rich.
From "The Pigman" by Paul Zindel
This caravan, wrecked by the storm, was spotted at Aberdeen beach.
From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2026
I also don’t want my sister to feel that caring for mom has wrecked her finances.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 12, 2026
The city's electricity network said its infrastructure is being wrecked.
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026
With a voice at times bitter, befuddled and bemused at his own wrecked life, Busby emerges as a self-aware, sympathetic survivor who knew his best work came at the beginning.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
I watched the guy line up a dozen plastic bottles on a card table outside Mr. Georgiou's wrecked pizzeria.
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
Of course, “The Eric André Show,” a parody of late-night talk series, always begins with its eponymous host wrecking his set in the most chaotic manner.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
His comments on the sidelines of G20 talks come as Russian and Ukrainian strikes targeting Black Sea ports have been wrecking and idling agricultural export capacity more quickly than trade flows can recover.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
Whether he takes a wrecking ball to it or lets it stagnate, the Kennedy Center threatens to become his latest victim.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
One rule of thumb in investing is that the older one gets, the more conservative the investment portfolio should be in order to prevent stock-market volatility from wrecking retirement plans.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026
Later, the city wrecking ball knocked them to the ground.
From "Bodega Dreams" by Ernesto Quinonez
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
