wrecker
Americannoun
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a person or thing that wrecks.
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a person, car, or train employed in removing wreckage, debris, etc., as from railroad tracks.
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Also called tow car, tow truck. a vehicle equipped with a mechanical apparatus for hoisting and pulling, used to tow wrecked, disabled, or stalled automobiles.
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Also called housewrecker. a person whose business it is to demolish and remove houses or other buildings, as in clearing sites for other use.
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a person or vessel employed in recovering salvage from wrecked or disabled vessels.
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a person who plunders wrecks, especially after exhibiting false signals in order to cause shipwrecks.
noun
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a person or thing that ruins or destroys
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a person whose job is to demolish buildings or dismantle cars
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(formerly) a person who lures ships to destruction to plunder the wreckage
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another word for tow truck
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of wrecker
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:
“Maxx remains on track to return during the offseason program and will undoubtedly return as the dominant game wrecker he has been these past seven seasons,” Crosby’s agent, CJ LaBoy, wrote on X.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026
It is fitting that we meet a woman once described as a "wrecker of civilisation" in the grounds of a ruined priory.
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2025
“We have worked a lot of theft cases over the years, but this one definitely takes first place in the heavyweight category,” Sheriff John Shearon’s office said in a statement, thanking the wrecker service.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 18, 2022
Says Davis: “He’s a game wrecker, watching his film and just seeing him. He’s explosive. He’s definitely one of those guys you have to make sure to keep contained.”
From Washington Times ● Nov. 30, 2021
Two men in coveralls stretched a thick steel cable with a hook from the back of the wrecker down toward the brush at the edge of the river.
From "100 Sideways Miles" by Andrew Smith
Part of this awareness was bringing these farmers on board to become protectors of the forest rather than wreckers of it.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2025
It included a history of dissent, a listing of several recommended actions and a typology of the protesters known to show up at City Hall: The meeting wreckers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2022
Sometimes you have to use multiple wreckers to move a truck around.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 8, 2022
“They do a great job of getting push in the pocket, they’re really sound in their rush lanes and they’ve got game wreckers up front.”
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 1, 2021
My mother threw a fit, though, when she heard that—and the home wreckers took cover for a while.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
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.
