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:
Ultimately, they decided the mission was too difficult and recommended the wreck be designated a cemetery—like many other sunken World War II-era ships.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
They left behind four cars, one of them a burnt-out wreck.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
The most egregious case is Sturgis’ Ru, who transforms over the course of the play from a jittery wreck into a vengeful, plaintive monster.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Air pollution, wildfire smoke, industrial disasters like the East Palestine, Ohio train wreck and extended pollen seasons are all reasons why people are increasingly concerned with making their indoor environments actually breathable.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026
This time there were no people around the wreck, no bodies on the ground.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
“I love my sisters so much that the idea that something could happen to them — it wrecks me,” Haim says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
For investors, it’s worth checking whether there might be some value in the wrecks and being wary of those sailing close to the wind.
From Barron's ● Jan. 30, 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
"It's been horrific and my family and I are emotional wrecks," she said.
From BBC ● Nov. 18, 2025
It is one of the most common forms of life on the planet, and it often gets into cell cultures and wrecks them.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
A Welsh artist calling himself Joseffson added a wooden frame to one of the wrecked meters, turning it into an art piece titled “Democracy Manifest, 2026.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Japan is haunted by the memory of a massive 9.0-magnitude undersea quake in 2011, which triggered a tsunami that killed or left missing around 18,500 people and wrecked the Fukushima nuclear plant.
From Barron's ● Jul. 28, 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
Primarily affecting children, polio wrecked havoc in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, killing and maiming scores of children.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
Our shared room resembled an ideological battlefield, with Suzanne presiding over a wrecked landscape of tossed clothing and strewn papers on her side and me perched on my bed, surrounded by fastidious order.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
But in practice they encourage disruptive student behavior, wrecking schools and exhausting teachers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
Rather, he yelled at them in a private meeting, complaining that by threatening to stop the war, they were wrecking his bargaining power in the ongoing peace talks.
From Slate ● Jun. 29, 2026
They’ll be digging into why money stress is wrecking your life — and how to fix it.
From MarketWatch ● May 12, 2026
Once upon a time in California, I went to the Orange County fairgrounds to watch Arnold Schwarzenegger give the signal for a wrecking ball to drop onto a vehicle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 26, 2026
I thought it would come pretty close to wrecking me to stand at the front window and watch them—two of them this time—walk out with their things in their arms.
From "The Book of Unknown Americans" by Cristina Henríquez
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.
