shipwreck

[ ship-rek ]

See synonyms for: shipwreck shipwrecked shipwrecking on Thesaurus.com

noun

the destruction or loss of a ship, as by sinking.
the remains of a wrecked ship.

destruction or ruin: the shipwreck of one's hopes.

verb (used with object)

to cause to suffer shipwreck.
to destroy; ruin.

verb (used without object)

to suffer shipwreck.

Origin of shipwreck

before 1100; Middle English shipwrech remains of a shipwreck; see ship¹, wreck; replacing Old English scipwræc (see wrack)

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use shipwreck in a sentence

There are hundreds of shipwrecks scattered up and down America’s eastern coastline, Taylor notes.
Analyze This: Shipwrecks provide a home for bottom-dwelling fish | Carolyn Wilke | December 4, 2020 | Science News For Students
People often think of shipwrecks like these as time capsules, she says.
Analyze This: Shipwrecks provide a home for bottom-dwelling fish | Carolyn Wilke | December 4, 2020 | Science News For Students
Nor was Robert Redford for his towering, largely dialogue-less turn as a stoic, shipwrecked badass in All is Lost.
Why Leonardo DiCaprio, Who Wows in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street,’ Deserves to (Finally) Win An Oscar | Marlow Stern | February 17, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
Philippines News, the girls get shipwrecked and dive straight into all sorts of hijinks.
Empire of the Sun & More of the Best Music Videos of the Week (VIDEO) | Jean Trinh | May 5, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
In Twelfth Night, twins again, this time male and female, are shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria, each believing the other dead.
The Old Man and the Sea | David Farr | April 9, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST

As the hours passed, Lehman worried about their increasingly late start—she'd been shipwrecked on these waters before.
Inside Congo's Floating Hospital | Danielle Shapiro | March 2, 2011 | THE DAILY BEAST
A couple of years afterwards he was shipwrecked going round the coast on the Masbate.
The Philippine Islands | John Foreman
Menendez, on hearing of this, immediately marched in search of the shipwrecked crew, numbering nearly one hundred men.
In the Wilds of Florida | W.H.G. Kingston
With his bark engulfed, no fate awaited him but to perish of hunger and cold, like the poor shipwrecked sailor on "The Man Rock."
Toilers of the Sea | Victor Hugo
This was the second rescue of shipwrecked crew and passengers that I had made, and I felt a little too proud of it, I suppose.
My Life in Many States and in Foreign Lands | George Francis Train
His trials lasted two years more, after which he became a sailor, was shipwrecked and carried back to Cracow.
The History of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth Century | Leo Wiener

British Dictionary definitions for shipwreck

shipwreck

/ (ˈʃɪpˌrɛk) /

noun

the partial or total destruction of a ship at sea
a wrecked ship or part of such a ship

ruin or destruction: the shipwreck of all my hopes

verb(tr)

to wreck or destroy (a ship)
to bring to ruin or destruction

Origin of shipwreck

Old English scipwræc, from ship + wræc something driven by the sea; see wrack ²

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Browse