wreck
Americannoun
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wrecks
plural
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any building, structure, or thing reduced to a state of ruin.
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wreckage, goods, etc., remaining above water after a shipwreck, especially when cast ashore.
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the ruin or destruction of a vessel in the course of navigation; shipwreck.
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a vessel in a state of ruin from disaster at sea, on rocks, etc.
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the ruin or destruction of anything.
the wreck of one's hopes.
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a person of ruined health; someone in bad shape physically or mentally.
The strain of his work left him a wreck.
verb (used with object)
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wrecks,
present (3rd person singular)
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wrecked,
past participle, past
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wrecking
present participle
verb
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to involve in or suffer disaster or destruction
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(tr) to cause the wreck of (a ship)
noun
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the accidental destruction of a ship at sea
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the ship so destroyed
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maritime law goods cast ashore from a wrecked vessel
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a person or thing that has suffered ruin or dilapidation
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the remains of something that has been destroyed
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old-fashioned the act of wrecking or the state of being wrecked; ruin or destruction
Usage
What does wreck mean? To wreck something is to destroy, ruin, or severely damage it. It’s commonly used in the context of the destruction of physical objects, as in He wrecked the car when he hit the tree. Nonphysical things can also be wrecked, as in Tom’s poor planning wrecked his chances of finishing his homework in time to go to baseball practice. Wreck is also commonly used as a noun referring to something that has been destroyed or turned into a ruin, such as a building, as in All that was left of the house after the fire was a burnt wreck. Wreck is often used figuratively to describe a person who is in bad health or who is emotionally or mentally unwell, as in Stress reduces him to a nervous wreck. Wreck is also used in a more specific way to refer to sunken or destroyed ships, as in The diver went to the bottom of the sea to explore the wreck. The word shipwreck means the same thing. The word wreckage refers to the remains of something that has been wrecked. Example: I cried so much at the end of that movie that I was an emotional wreck for the rest of the day.
Synonym Usage
See spoil.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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wrecksimple
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wreckssimple
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have wreckedperfect
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has wreckedperfect
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am wreckingprogressive
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are wreckingprogressive
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is wreckingprogressive
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have been wreckingperfect progressive
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has been wreckingperfect progressive
Past
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wreckedsimple
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had wreckedperfect
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was wreckingprogressive
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were wreckingprogressive
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had been wreckingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wreck
First recorded in 1200–50; (noun) Middle English wrec, wrech, wrek, from Old Danish wrækæ “wreck”; (verb) late Middle English, derivative of the noun
Explanation
A wreck is something that's been destroyed. Your hair might be a wreck after a bad day at the barber. Your car might be a wreck after you hit a telephone pole. Your house might be a wreck after a visit from 3-year-old twins. You might be an emotional wreck after a fight with your boyfriend. A sunken ship is a wreck, or a shipwreck. When you hit that telephone pole, you’ve had a wreck, and you can also call your mangled car a wreck. When you’re next heading out with the car keys, you mom might say, "Don't wreck the car!,” hoping you’ll bring it back in one piece.
Vocabulary lists containing wreck
"Return to Titanic" and "Talking with Robert Ballard"
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Commonly Confused Words, List 3
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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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.
See Examples For:
Mall is still a largely abandoned wreck, with broken planter boxes and weeds at street level.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
Though Liniger continued to live with significant paralysis on her left side after the plane wreck, she learned to play golf with one arm immobilized in a sling and became an accomplished one-armed golfer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
For nearly a century, the wreck remained lost beneath the sea.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 14, 2026
"There is no plan B" a former government adviser told me, so could a slowdown wreck future prospects here in Britain?
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
A universal shriek arose as the russet boots waved wildly from the wreck and a golden head emerged, exclaiming, “I told you so! I told you so!”
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
UC-30 later became one of the wrecks examined through the major NorthSeaWrecks research project.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 14, 2026
It struck musicians and illustrators, YouTubers and Instagrammers, self-proclaimed anxious wrecks and the freest of spirits.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026
"It wrecks people's lives at no fault of their own."
From BBC ● Feb. 5, 2026
The paratroopers that landed, scattered, are in a race to assault the airfield before Taiwan wrecks it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 7, 2025
Of the six deaths that occurred in wrecks the year before in the county, one was attributable to a teen driver.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
The city's electricity network said its infrastructure is being wrecked.
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026
“The Dog Stars” takes place in a wrecked, deserted 2035, after a viral plague has killed almost everybody on Earth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Sniffer dogs in Japan helped rescuers Friday make a final sweep of a shopping mall wrecked by an explosion after a big earthquake, as the death toll from the tremor three days earlier hit 35.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
The brutal heat and intense working conditions inside the kitchen and the front area of the business come after a thief wrecked the rooftop air conditioning unit in search of copper wiring.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
She told me that her boyfriend, Arlo, wrecked his car and turned out to be a loser.
From "Wish" by Barbara O'Connor
Whether he takes a wrecking ball to it or lets it stagnate, the Kennedy Center threatens to become his latest victim.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
One rule of thumb in investing is that the older one gets, the more conservative the investment portfolio should be in order to prevent stock-market volatility from wrecking retirement plans.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026
But in practice they encourage disruptive student behavior, wrecking schools and exhausting teachers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
“Haughty, hectoring and pleased with herself, she is single-handedly wrecking her hen-pecked husband Gavin’s lofty political ambitions.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026
How can love be such a wrecking ball?
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
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.
