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wrack

 - 9 dictionary results

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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Slang Dictionary
rack (sth)

  1. tv.
    to accumulate something; to collect or acquire something. : We racked up twenty points in the game last Saturday.
  2. tv.
    to wreck something. : He racked up his arm in the football game.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

rack  (1)
"frame with bars," c.1305, possibly from M.Du. rec "framework," related to recken "stretch out," cognate with O.E. reccan "to stretch out," from P.Gmc. *rakjanan (cf. O.N. rekja, O.Fris. reza, O.H.G. recchen, Ger. recken, Goth. uf-rakjan "to stretch out"). The verb meaning "to sleep" is teen-ager slang from 1960s (rack was Navy slang for "bed" in 1940s). Meaning "instrument of torture" first recorded c.1460 (verb meaning "to torture on the rack" is from 1433), perhaps from Ger. rackbank, originally an implement for stretching leather, etc. Fig. sense of "agony" is from 1591. Mechanical meaning "toothed bar" is from 1797 (see pinion). Meaning "set of antlers" is first attested 1945, Amer.Eng.; hence slang sense of "a woman's breasts" (especially if large), c.1980s. Off the rack in ref. to clothing is from 1962. Rack up "register accumulate, achieve" is first attested 1961, probably from method of keeping score in pool halls.

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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Idioms & Phrases

wrack

see under rack.

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