shipwreck

[ship-rek]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR shipwreck 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 wrack¹)

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for shipwrecked

wrecked, stranded, reefed, marooned, grounded

Examples from the Web for shipwrecked

Contemporary Examples of shipwrecked

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
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
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
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

Historical Examples of shipwrecked

But the fate of shipwrecked mariners all over the world is notorious.
Homeward Bound
James Fenimore Cooper
It was as if we were abandoned, shipwrecked, a thousand miles from land.
The Flood
Emile Zola
I was shipwrecked once and spent two days in a boat looking for a sail.
Cape Cod Stories
Joseph C. Lincoln
They are shipwrecked and a strange mix-up occurs on account of it.
The Eternal City
Hall Caine
Dan scanned the sea like a shipwrecked mariner watching for a sail.
Tales of Fishes
Zane Grey

British Dictionary definitions for shipwrecked

shipwreck

noun

the partial or total destruction of a ship at sea

a wrecked ship or part of such a ship

ruin or destructionthe shipwreck of all my hopes

verb (tr)

to wreck or destroy (a ship)

to bring to ruin or destruction

Word Origin for 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

Word Origin and History for shipwrecked

shipwreck

mid-15c., from ship (n.) + wreck (n.). Earlier it meant "things cast up from a shipwreck" (c.1100). The earlier word for "shipwreck" in the modern sense was Middle English schipbreke, "'ship-break,'" from a North Sea Germanic word, cf. West Frisian skipbrek, Middle Dutch schipbroke, German Schiffbruch, Old English scipgebroc. Old English scipbryce meant "right to claim goods from a wrecked ship."

shipwreck

1580s, "cause to wreck;" c.1600, "to suffer shipwreck," from shipwreck (n.). Related: Shipwrecked.