- a variation of rack.
wrack
Americannoun
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wreck or wreckage.
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damage or destruction.
wrack and ruin.
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a trace of something destroyed.
leaving not a wrack behind.
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seaweed or other vegetation cast on the shore.
verb (used with object)
noun
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seaweed or other marine vegetation that is floating in the sea or has been cast ashore
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any of various seaweeds of the genus Fucus, such as F. serratus ( serrated wrack )
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literary
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a wreck or piece of wreckage
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a remnant or fragment of something destroyed
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noun
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collapse or destruction (esp in the phrase wrack and ruin )
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something destroyed or a remnant of such
verb
Usage
The use of the spelling wrack rather than rack in sentences such as she was wracked by grief or the country was wracked by civil war is very common but is thought by many people to be incorrect
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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wracksimple
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wrackssimple
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have wrackedperfect
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has wrackedperfect
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am wrackingprogressive
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are wrackingprogressive
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is wrackingprogressive
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have been wrackingperfect progressive
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has been wrackingperfect progressive
Past
-
wrackedsimple
-
had wrackedperfect
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was wrackingprogressive
-
were wrackingprogressive
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had been wrackingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wrack
First recorded before 900; Middle English wrak (noun), Old English wræc “vengeance, misery,” akin to wracu “vengeance, misery,” wrecan “to drive out, punish”; see wreak
Explanation
Wrack is when something falls into disrepair. When an old house deteriorates, you can describe its wrack, or the process of its crumbling collapse. You're most likely to come across the noun wrack in the phrase "go to wrack and ruin." This is a descriptive way to talk about the collapse or gradual breakdown of something, either literal — "I hate to see that building go to wrack and ruin," or figurative — "Their marriage went to wrack and ruin after a year." In the fourteenth century, a wrack was a shipwreck, from the Middle Dutch wrak, or "wreck."
Vocabulary lists containing wrack
The Tragedy of Macbeth
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Bob Dylan Wins Nobel Prize in Literature
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"The Tragedy of Macbeth," Vocabulary from Act 1
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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.
The abundance of predatory shorebirds, like sandpipers and plovers, lagged behind the deposition of wrack on beaches.
From Science Daily • Jan. 4, 2024
These are things that like really wrack the minds of a lot of creatives.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 14, 2023
From there, he had to "wrack his brain for what to do" because the music on this new album was so different from the band's "Love Me Do" days.
From Salon • Nov. 5, 2022
Every four years, the same few countries wrack up medal after medal - the US, China, Russia - and Tokyo 2020 was no different.
From BBC • Aug. 9, 2021
And then he turned and rowed the skiff back home, tucking it up above the wrack line, and coming back inside.
From "Beyond the Bright Sea" by Lauren Wolk
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
