Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Wreck?

\Wreck\, v. t. & n. See 2d & 3d {Wreak}.
\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}.] 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. 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. 2. Destruction or injury of anything, especially by violence; ruin; as, the wreck of a railroad train. The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds. --Addison. Its intellectual life was thus able to go on amidst the wreck of its political life. --J. R. Green. 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. 4. The remain of anything ruined or fatally injured. To the fair haven of my native home, The wreck of what I was, fatigued I come. --Cowper. 5. (Law) Goods, etc., which, after a shipwreck, are cast upon the land by the sea. --Bouvier.
\Wreck\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Wrecked}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Wrecking}.] 1. To destroy, disable, or seriously damage, as a vessel, by driving it against the shore or on rocks, by causing it to become unseaworthy, to founder, or the like; to shipwreck. Supposing that they saw the king's ship wrecked. --Shak. 2. To bring wreck or ruin upon by any kind of violence; to destroy, as a railroad train. 3. To involve in a wreck; hence, to cause to suffer ruin; to balk of success, and bring disaster on. Weak and envied, if they should conspire, They wreck themselves. --Daniel.
\Wreck\, v. i. 1. To suffer wreck or ruin. --Milton. 2. To work upon a wreck, as in saving property or lives, or in plundering.