wrack

[rak]

noun

1. wreck or wreckage.

2. damage or destruction.

   wrack and ruin.

3. a trace of something destroyed.

   leaving not a wrack behind.

4. seaweed or other vegetation cast on the shore.

verb (used with object)

1. to wreck.

   He wracked his car up on the river road.

wrack

¹

/ ræk /

noun

1. seaweed or other marine vegetation that is floating in the sea or has been cast ashore

2. any of various seaweeds of the genus Fucus, such as F. serratus ( serrated wrack )

3. literary

   1. a wreck or piece of wreckage

   2. a remnant or fragment of something destroyed

wrack

²

/ ræk /

noun

1. collapse or destruction (esp in the phrase wrack and ruin )

2. something destroyed or a remnant of such

verb

1. a variant spelling of rack 1

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of wrack¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English wrak (noun), Old English wræc “vengeance, misery,” akin to wracu “vengeance, misery,” wrecan “to drive out, punish”; wreak

Word History and Origins

Origin of wrack¹

C14 (in the sense: a wrecked ship, wreckage, hence later applied to marine vegetation washed ashore): perhaps from Middle Dutch wrak wreckage; the term corresponds to Old English wræc _wrack ¹

Origin of wrack²

Old English wræc persecution, misery; related to Gothic wraka, Old Norse rāk. Compare _wreck , _wretch

Idioms and Phrases

see under rack.

Example Sentences

Malnutrition had wracked the child’s body, causing her to develop a terrible illness that eventually killed her.

Read more on Salon

Beowulf in particular was wracked with guilt, for it had been his marvelous painting of the scene at Ahwoo-Ahwoo that seemed to have let the cannibal book out of the armoire, so to speak.

Read more on Literature

On his way to his meeting with Greenblatt, Burry was wracked with the anxiety that always plagued him before face-to-face encounters with people.

Read more on Literature

Ever since early July, the team had lived in a world blanketed by frustration and wracked with repeated misery.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

England, the top-ranked team and tournament favourites, face a Scotland side wracked by contract disputes and an uncertain future.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• decimate 
• torment 
• wreck