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View synonyms for

wrack

[ rak ]

noun

  1. wreck or wreckage.
  2. damage or destruction:

    wrack and ruin.

  3. a trace of something destroyed:

    leaving not a wrack behind.

  4. seaweed or other vegetation cast on the shore.


verb (used with object)

  1. to wreck:

    He wracked his car up on the river road.

wrack

1

/ æ /

noun

  1. collapse or destruction (esp in the phrase wrack and ruin )
  2. something destroyed or a remnant of such
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. a variant spelling of rack 1
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

wrack

2

/ æ /

noun

  1. seaweed or other marine vegetation that is floating in the sea or has been cast ashore
  2. any of various seaweeds of the genus Fucus, such as F. serratus ( serrated wrack )
  3. literary.
    1. a wreck or piece of wreckage
    2. a remnant or fragment of something destroyed
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Usage

The use of the spelling wrack rather than rack in sentences such as she was wracked by grief or the country was wracked by civil war is very common but is thought by many people to be incorrect
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yvlog History and Origins

Origin of wrack1

First recorded before 900; Middle English wrak (noun), Old English ɰæ “vengeance, misery,” akin to wracu “vengeance, misery,” wrecan “to drive out, punish”; wreak
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yvlog History and Origins

Origin of wrack1

Old English ɰæ persecution, misery; related to Gothic wraka, Old Norse . Compare wreck , wretch

Origin of wrack2

C14 (in the sense: a wrecked ship, wreckage, hence later applied to marine vegetation washed ashore): perhaps from Middle Dutch wrak wreckage; the term corresponds to Old English ɰæ wrack 1
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Idioms and Phrases

see under rack .
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Example Sentences

Trump's and his administration's focus on eradicating the gang has since brought additional, hostile attention to an immigrant population wracked with political turbulence.

From

As he languished on the IL, enduring a series of painful flare-ups almost every time he tried to begin a hitting program, the nine-year veteran started to become wracked with doubt.

From

Since then the country has been wracked by economic chaos, little functioning political control and increasingly violent gang warfare.

From

In the late 1960s, the state was wracked by armed conflict between Maoist rebels – also called Naxalites – and government forces.

From

By then, RayRay was wracked by an assortment of infirmities linked to his advanced age.

From

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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.

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