# wreak

Pronunciation: say "REEK" US /ɹik/, UK /ɹiːk/

## Verb

1. To cause or inflict harm or damage, or to vent a harmful feeling such as anger on someone or something.
   - Simple: To cause a lot of harm or damage, or to take out anger on someone or something.
   - _A single burst pipe can wreak serious damage on an old house._
   - _Rumors of layoffs wreaked havoc with morale across the department._

## Verb

2. To inflict vengeance, or to take vengeance on someone who has done a wrong. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: To get revenge on someone, or to punish them for something bad they did to you.
   - _The exiled prince returned to wreak vengeance on the lords who had betrayed his father._
   - _The ballad tells how the widow wreaked her revenge on the men who had murdered her husband._
3. To take vengeance for a wrong or loss that has been suffered. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: To get revenge for something bad that happened, like a loss or a death.
   - _The ballad tells of a widow who lived only to wreak her husband's murder._
   - _Exiled for twenty years, the old soldier came home at last to wreak the wrongs of his youth._

## Noun

4. Revenge for a wrong; also, furious passion or deep resentment. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: Revenge, or a strong angry feeling against someone.
   - _Years of exile had not cooled his wreak against the family that drove him out._
   - _The clan took wreak for the murdered shepherd by burning their rivals' barns._
5. Punishment dealt out in return for a wrong done. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: Punishment that someone gets back for a bad thing they did.

## Other meanings

- (verb) To punish or discipline someone, whether by harsh rebuke or by striking them.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–3** — From Middle English wreken, from Old English wrecan, from Proto-West Germanic *wrekan, from Proto-Germanic *wrekaną, from Proto-Indo-European *wreg- ("push, shove, drive, track down"). It is related through Germanic to Dutch wreken, German rächen and Swedish vräka, through Indo-European to Latin urgēre (the source of English urge), and distantly to English wreck.
**Meanings 4–5** — From Middle English wreke or wrake, Northern Middle English variants of wreche, later influenced by the other word wreak (etymology 1). Compare Dutch wraak.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/wreak (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).