wrack

See also Wrack

English

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ræk/
• Rhymes: -æk
• Homophone: rack

Etymology 1

From Middle English wrake, wrache, wreche, from a merger of Old English wracu, wræc (“misery, suffering”) and Old English wrǣċ (“vengeance, revenge”).

Noun

wrack (plural wracks)

1. (archaic, dialectal or literary) Vengeance; revenge; persecution; punishment; consequence; trouble.
2. (archaic, except in dialects) Ruin; destruction.
3. The remains; a wreck.

Translations

archaic or literary: revenge, persecution

archaic, except in dialects: ruin, destruction

the remains, a wreck

Verb

wrack (third-person singular simple present wracks, present participle wracking, simple past and past participle wracked)

1. (UK dialectal, transitive) To execute vengeance; avenge.
2. (UK dialectal, transitive) To worry; tease; torment.

Etymology 2

From Middle Dutch (and Dutch) wrak (cognate with German Wrack, Old Norse rek, Danish vrag, Swedish vrak, Old English wræc). Compare Gothic 𐍅𐍂𐌹𐌺𐌰𐌽 (wrikan), 𐍅𐍂𐌰𐌺𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wrakjan, “persecute”), Old Norse reka (“drive”).

Noun

wrack (plural wracks)

1. (archaic) Remnant from a shipwreck as washed ashore, or the right to claim such items.
2. Any marine vegetation cast up on shore, especially seaweed of the genus Fucus.
3. Weeds, vegetation or rubbish floating on a river or pond.
4. A high flying cloud; a rack.
   • 1892, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes^[1], edition HTML, The Gutenberg Project, published 2011:

     A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of the clouds.

Derived terms

• channelled wrack
• flat wrack
• spiral wrack

Translations

archaic) remnant from a shipwreck as washed ashore, or the right to claim such items

any marine vegetation cast up on shore, especially seaweed of the genus Fucus

weeds, vegetation or rubbish floating on a river or pond

high, flying clouds; a rack

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Esperanto: fuko (eo)

Verb

wrack (third-person singular simple present wracks, present participle wracking, simple past and past participle wracked)

1. (transitive) To wreck, especially a ship (usually in passive).
2. Alternative form of rack, To cause to suffer pain, etc.

Translations

to wreck

rack — see rack

Anagrams

• crawk