WRACK • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Wrack

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noun

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

Wrack n.

1.

Wreck; ruin; destruction. (Obs.) "A world devote to universal wrack."

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.

Wreck n. (Written also wrack)

1.

The destruction or injury of a vessel by being cast on shore, or on rocks, or by being disabled or sunk by the force of winds or waves; shipwreck. "Hard and obstinate As is a rock amidst the raging floods, 'Gainst which a ship, of succor desolate, Doth suffer wreck, both of herself and goods."

2.

Destruction or injury of anything, especially by violence; ruin; as, the wreck of a railroad train. "The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds." "Its intellectual life was thus able to go on amidst the wreck of its political life."

3.

The ruins of a ship stranded; a ship dashed against rocks or land, and broken, or otherwise rendered useless, by violence and fracture; as, they burned the wreck.

4.

The remain of anything ruined or fatally injured. "To the fair haven of my native home, The wreck of what I was, fatigued I come."

5.

(Law) Goods, etc., which, after a shipwreck, are cast upon the land by the sea.

verb

Wrack v. t. To rack; to torment. (R.)

Wrack v. t. To wreck. (Obs.)

See images of 'Wrack'

Etymology of 'Wrack'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Wrack" Quotes from Famous Books

... zigzag rift was passed, and then the rugged stony flooring gave place to dark, deep water, beautifully transparent—so clear that the many-tinted fronds of bladder-wrack and other weeds could be seen swaying to and fro under the influence of the tide which ...

— The Lost Middy - Being the Secret of the Smugglers' Gap • George Manville Fenn

... little River, which being encompassed by the Rocks [63]was sheltered from the Wind, so that we had opportunity to land our selves, (though almost drowned) in all four persons, besides the Negro: when we were got upon the Rock, we could perceive the miserable Wrack to our great terrour, I had in my {{9 }} pocket a little Tinder-box, and Steel, and Flint to strike fire at any time upon occasion, which served now to good Purpose, for its being so close, preserved the Tinder dry, with this, and the help of some old rotten Wood which we got ...

— The Isle Of Pines (1668) - and, An Essay in Bibliography by W. C. Ford • Henry Neville

... brindled loach to bask and sprawl, Tasting the warm sun ere it dipped Into the water; but quick as fear Back his shining brown head slipped To crouch on the gravel of his lair, Where the cooled sunbeams, broke in wrack, Spilt shattered gold about his back. So within that green-veiled air, Within that white-walled quiet, where Innocent water thought aloud,— Childish prattle that must make The wise sunlight with laughter shake On the leafage overbowed,— Often the King and his love-lass Let ...

— The Home Book of Verse, Vol. 2 (of 4) • Various

... can the fire-drama of his recital of generations of cruelties and wrongs—his picture of their miserable lot and of the envied aristocrats' pleasures—and then consider the pitch of frenzied republicanism to which this wonderful fraternal climax uplifted them! With crash of thunder and wrack of the elements the Storm must break, directly the popular feeling found immediate object of ...

— Orphans of the Storm • Henry MacMahon

... things are the same, except that the poor old stepmother and her ill-conditioned husband have left it, and are living in Tunbridge. He preaches and prays, and spends her savings, and, let us hope, he is content. The dear old place was going to wrack and ruin, so Sir Robert's orders came that they were ...

— Penshurst Castle - In the Days of Sir Philip Sidney • Emma Marshall

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