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wrack

1  [rak]
Use wrack in a Sentence
–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)
5. to wreck: He wracked his car up on the river road.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME wrak (n.), OE wræc vengeance, misery, akin to wracu vengeance, misery, wrecan to wreak

wrack

2  [rak]
–noun, verb (used without object)
rack 4 .

rack

4  [rak]
–noun
1. Also called cloud rack. a group of drifting clouds.
–verb (used without object)
2. to drive or move, esp. before the wind.
Also, wrack.

Origin:
1350–1400; ME rak, reck(e); orig. uncert.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To wrack
wrack 1 also rack   (rāk)   
n.  
  1. Destruction or ruin.
  2. A remnant or vestige of something destroyed.

[Middle English, from Old English wræc, punishment (influenced by Middle Dutch wrak, shipwreck).]
wrack 2 also rack   (rāk)   
n.  
    1. Wreckage, especially of a ship cast ashore.
    2. Chiefly British Violent destruction of a building or vehicle.
    3. Dried seaweed.
    4. Marine vegetation, especially kelp.
    1. Dried seaweed.
    2. Marine vegetation, especially kelp.
v.   wracked also racked, wrack·ing also rack·ing, wracks also racks

v.   tr.
To cause the ruin of; wreck.
v.   intr.
To be wrecked.

[Middle English wrak, from Middle Dutch.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Wrack

Wrack\, n. A thin, flying cloud; a rack.

Wrack

Wrack\, v. t. To rack; to torment. [R.]

Wrack

Wrack\, n. [OE. wrak wreck. See Wreck.]

1. Wreck; ruin; destruction. [Obs.] --Chaucer. "A world devote to universal wrack." --Milton.

2. Any marine vegetation cast up on the shore, especially plants of the genera Fucus, Laminaria, and Zostera, which are most abundant on northern shores.

3. (Bot.) Coarse seaweed of any kind.

Wrack grass, or Grass wrack (Bot.), eelgrass.

Wrack

Wrack\, v. t. To wreck. [Obs.] --Dryden.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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wrack  (n.)
c.1386, "wrecked ship," probably from M.Du. wrak "wreck," cognate with O.E. wræc "misery, punishment," and wrecan "to punish, drive out" (see wreak). The meaning "damage, disaster, destruction" (in wrack and ruin) is from c.1408, from the O.E. word. Sense of "seaweed, etc., cast up on shore" is recorded from 1513. The verb meaning "to ruin or wreck" (originally of ships) is recorded from 1562, from earlier intrans. sense "to be shipwrecked" (1470). Often confused in this sense since 16c. with rack (1) in the verb sense of "to torture on the rack;" to wrack one's brains is thus erroneous.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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wrack

see under rack.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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