wrack
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]From Middle English wrake, wrache, wreche, from a merger of Old English wracu, wræc (“misery, suffering”) and Old English wrǣċ (“vengeance, revenge”). See also wrake.
Noun
[edit]wrack (plural wracks)
- (archaic, dialectal or literary) Vengeance; revenge; persecution; punishment; consequence; trouble.
- (archaic, except in dialects) Ruin; destruction.
- c. 1593, Christopher Marlowe, Hero and Leander[1], page 7:
- Therefore, in sign her treasure suffered wrack,
Since Hero's time hath half the world been black.
- The remains; a wreck.
- 2011, John Jeremiah Sullivan, “Mr. Lytle: An Essay”, in Pulphead:
- Lytle was already moaning in shame, fallen back in bed with his hand across his face like he'd just washed up somewhere, a piece of wrack.
Alternative forms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]Verb
[edit]wrack (third-person singular simple present wracks, present participle wracking, simple past and past participle wracked)
- (UK dialectal, transitive) To execute vengeance on; avenge.
- (UK dialectal, transitive) To worry; tease; torment.
Etymology 2
[edit]Late Middle English, from Middle Dutch wrak, ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *wrekaną (“to drive out”), the source of wreak and wreck.[1] Doublet of vraic.
Cognate with German Wrack, Old Norse rek, Danish vrag, Swedish vrak, Old English wræc); also compare Gothic 𐍅𐍂𐌹𐌺𐌰𐌽 (wrikan), 𐍅𐍂𐌰𐌺𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wrakjan, “persecute”), Old Norse reka (“drive”).
Noun
[edit]wrack (countable and uncountable, plural wracks)
- (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 family Fucaceae.
- Weeds, vegetation or rubbish floating on a river or pond.
- A high flying cloud; a rack.
- 1892, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes[2], HTML edition, 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
[edit]- black wrack (Fucus serratus)
- bladder wrack (Fucus vesiculosus)
- buckey wrack (Fucus vesiculosus)
- channelled wrack (Pelvetia canaliculata)
- egg wrack (Ascophyllum nodosum)
- flat wrack (Fucus spiralis)
- grass wrack (eelgrass)
- horn wrack (Flustra)
- knobbed wrack (Ascophyllum nodosum)
- knotted wrack (Ascophyllum nodosum)
- lady wrack (Fucus vesiculosus)
- notched wrack (Fucus serratus)
- serrated wrack (Fucus serratus)
- spiral wrack (Fucus spiralis)
- tidewrack
- toothed wrack (Fucus serratus)
- wrack line
- wrack zone
Translations
[edit]- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Verb
[edit]wrack (third-person singular simple present wracks, present participle wracking, simple past and past participle wracked or wrackt)
- (transitive, usually passive voice) To wreck, especially a ship.
- Alternative form of rack (“to cause to suffer pain, etc.”)
Usage notes
[edit]Frequently confused with rack (“torture; suffer pain”), though traditionally means “wreck”. Etymologically, wrack and ruin (“complete destruction”) and storm-wracked (“wrecked by a storm”) are the only terms that derive from wrack, rather than rack. However, in usage, forms such as nerve-wracking are common, and considered acceptable by some authorities; see usage notes for rack.
Conjugation
[edit]infinitive | (to) wrack | ||
---|---|---|---|
present tense | past tense | ||
1st-person singular | wrack | wracked | |
2nd-person singular | wrack, wrackest† | wracked, wrackedst† | |
3rd-person singular | wracks, wracketh† | wracked | |
plural | wrack | ||
subjunctive | wrack | wracked | |
imperative | wrack | — | |
participles | wracking | wracked |
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
Anagrams
[edit]- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/æk
- Rhymes:English/æk/1 syllable
- English terms with homophones
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with archaic senses
- English dialectal terms
- English literary terms
- English terms with quotations
- English verbs
- British English
- English transitive verbs
- English terms derived from Middle Dutch
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English doublets
- English uncountable nouns
- en:Brown algae
- en:Clouds