wrack

American  

[rak] / ræk /

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.

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verb (used with object)

1. to wreck.

   He wracked his car up on the river road.

wrack ¹ British  

/ 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

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wrack ² British  

/ ræk /

noun

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

2. something destroyed or a remnant of such

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verb

1. a variant spelling of rack 1

wrack Idioms  

1. see under rack.

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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

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."

Example Sentences

At the longest timescales, kelp forest biomass and beach width were the biggest drivers of kelp wrack on the beaches.

From Science Daily • Jan. 4, 2024

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

“I wrack my memory to recall a concert in which music was worse served,” I wrote then.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 10, 2021

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

The beach was a stony spit clogged with low-tide sea wrack, but it was beautiful to me, more beautiful than any champagne-white tourist beach back home.

From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs

Related Words

• decimate
• torment
• wreck