# wreck

Pronunciation: say "REK" /ˈɹɛk/

## Verb

1. To destroy something violently, or damage it so badly that it no longer works or is useless.
   - Simple: To damage something so badly that it no longer works or is useless.
   - _A drunk driver wrecked three parked cars on Main Street last night._
   - _Floodwater can wreck a furnace beyond repair in a single night._
5. To ruin something, or bring it into a state of decay and disrepair.
   - Simple: To ruin something, or let it fall into a bad, broken-down state.
   - _Decades of neglect had wrecked the once-grand hotel._
   - _Careless tenants can wreck an apartment within a year._
7. To crash or otherwise come to grief, ending up damaged or ruined.
   - Simple: To crash, or be badly damaged or destroyed in an accident.
   - _The freight train wrecked on a sharp curve, spilling coal across the tracks._
   - _Stock cars often wreck on the last lap, when drivers take the biggest risks._
8. To involve someone or something in a wreck, and so bring ruin or disaster on them and defeat their hopes of success.
   - Simple: To bring disaster on someone or something, so that they fail or are ruined.
   - _Infighting can wreck a campaign long before election day._
   - _A string of scandals wrecked the senator's career within a single year._
10. To take apart wrecked vehicles or other objects in order to recover any useful parts. *(Australia)*
   - Simple: To take apart old or crashed cars or other things to save the parts that still work.
   - _The yard out past the tip will wreck any car you bring in and sell off the parts._
   - _We wrecked the old Commodore for its gearbox and wheels._

## Noun

2. Someone or something that has been ruined and left in a terrible state.
   - Simple: A person or thing that has been ruined and is in a very bad state.
   - _By the time the verdict came in, she was a nervous wreck._
   - _After three moves in one year, our sofa was a wreck._
3. An accident or event in which something is damaged by a collision.
   - Simple: An accident in which something is damaged by crashing into something else.
   - _Traffic backed up for miles after a five-car wreck near the bridge._
   - _The engineer survived the wreck by jumping from the cab just before the trains collided._
4. The ruined remains of something after severe damage or heavy wear.
   - Simple: What is left of something after it has been badly damaged or worn out.
   - _Investigators sifted through the wreck of the plane for the flight recorder._
   - _Divers mapped the wreck of a fishing boat that sank in the bay decades ago._
6. An event in which a ship is badly damaged or destroyed; a shipwreck.
   - Simple: An accident at sea in which a ship is badly damaged or destroyed.
   - _Only two of the crew survived the wreck off Cape Hatteras._
   - _After a string of wrecks on the reef, the government finally built a lighthouse._
9. Goods and other property washed ashore by the sea after a shipwreck.
   - Simple: Things from a wrecked ship that the sea has washed up onto the shore.
   - _Anyone who takes wreck from the shore must report it to the authorities._
   - _When the freighter broke apart, crates, rope and life jackets came ashore as wreck for weeks._
11. A large number of birds brought down to the ground, injured or dead, by extremely severe weather.
   - Simple: A large number of birds forced down to the ground, hurt or dead, by very bad weather.
   - _Strong onshore gales caused a wreck of little auks along the east coast._
   - _Ornithologists recorded the worst wreck in decades, with exhausted petrels found far inland._

## Verb

12. To strip wrecked ships of their goods; to loot a shipwreck. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To steal goods from ships that have been wrecked.

## Origin

From Middle English wrek, from Anglo-Norman wrek, from Old Norse *wrek (compare Swedish vrak, Danish vrag), from Proto-Germanic *wrekaną, which is also the source of Old English wrecan (English wreak), Old High German rehhan, and Gothic wrikan.

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