- Wreck
- Wreck Wreck, n. [OE. wrak, AS. wr[ae]c exile, persecution,
misery, from wrecan to drive out, punish; akin to D. wrak,
adj., damaged, brittle, n., a wreck, wraken to reject, throw
off, Icel. rek a thing drifted ashore, Sw. vrak refuse, a
wreck, Dan. vrag. See {Wreak}, v. t., and cf. {Wrack} a
marine plant.] [Written also {wrack}.]
[1913 Webster]
1. The destruction or injury of a vessel by being cast on
shore, or on rocks, or by being disabled or sunk by the
force of winds or waves; shipwreck.
[1913 Webster]
Hard and obstinate As is a rock amidst the raging floods, 'Gainst which a ship, of succor desolate, Doth suffer wreck, both of herself and goods. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
2. Destruction or injury of anything, especially by violence; ruin; as, the wreck of a railroad train. [1913 Webster]
The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds. --Addison. [1913 Webster]
Its intellectual life was thus able to go on amidst the wreck of its political life. --J. R. Green. [1913 Webster]
3. The ruins of a ship stranded; a ship dashed against rocks or land, and broken, or otherwise rendered useless, by violence and fracture; as, they burned the wreck. [1913 Webster]
4. The remain of anything ruined or fatally injured. [1913 Webster]
To the fair haven of my native home, The wreck of what I was, fatigued I come. --Cowper. [1913 Webster]
5. (Law) Goods, etc., which, after a shipwreck, are cast upon the land by the sea. --Bouvier. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
