SHIPWRECK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does shipwreck mean? 

• SHIPWRECK (noun)
  The noun SHIPWRECK has 3 senses:

1. a wrecked ship (or a part of one)

2. an irretrievable loss

3. an accident that destroys a ship at sea

  Familiarity information: SHIPWRECK used as a noun is uncommon.

• SHIPWRECK (verb)
  The verb SHIPWRECK has 4 senses:

1. ruin utterly

2. suffer failure, as in some enterprise

3. cause to experience shipwreck

4. destroy a ship

  Familiarity information: SHIPWRECK used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SHIPWRECK (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A wrecked ship (or a part of one)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("shipwreck" is a kind of...):

ship (a vessel that carries passengers or freight)

Derivation:

shipwreck (destroy a ship)

shipwreck (cause to experience shipwreck)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An irretrievable loss

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Context example:

that was the shipwreck of their romance

Hypernyms ("shipwreck" is a kind of...):

ruin; ruination (an event that results in destruction)

Derivation:

shipwreck (suffer failure, as in some enterprise)

shipwreck (ruin utterly)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An accident that destroys a ship at sea

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

shipwreck; wreck

Hypernyms ("shipwreck" is a kind of...):

accident (an unfortunate mishap; especially one causing damage or injury)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "shipwreck"):

capsizing ((nautical) the event of a boat accidentally turning over in the water)

Derivation:

shipwreck (destroy a ship)

• SHIPWRECK (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they shipwreck    ... he / she / it shipwrecks   
Past simple: shipwrecked   
Past participle: shipwrecked   
-ing form: shipwrecking   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Ruin utterly

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Context example:

You have shipwrecked my career

Hypernyms (to "shipwreck" is one way to...):

ruin (destroy or cause to fail)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

shipwreck (an irretrievable loss)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Suffer failure, as in some enterprise

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "shipwreck" is one way to...):

fail; go wrong; miscarry (be unsuccessful)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

shipwreck (an irretrievable loss)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Cause to experience shipwreck

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Context example:

They were shipwrecked in one of the mysteries at sea

Hypernyms (to "shipwreck" is one way to...):

subject (cause to experience or suffer or make liable or vulnerable to)

Domain category:

seafaring; water travel (travel by water)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

shipwreck (a wrecked ship (or a part of one))

Sense 4

Meaning:

Destroy a ship

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

The vessel was shipwrecked

Hypernyms (to "shipwreck" is one way to...):

destroy; ruin (destroy completely; damage irreparably)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

shipwreck (a wrecked ship (or a part of one))

shipwreck (an accident that destroys a ship at sea)

 Context examples 

He had been on a whaling voyage in the Arctic, once—a voyage that was to have been for three years and which had terminated in shipwreck at the end of six months.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Your peace will not be shipwrecked as mine has been.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

“But I have read the personal narratives of a score of shipwrecked men who tried, and tried in vain,” I answered.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

But Mr. and Mrs. Micawber were so used to their old difficulties, I think, that they felt quite shipwrecked when they came to consider that they were released from them.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Prendergast threw us over a chart, told us that we were shipwrecked mariners whose ship had foundered in lat. 15º N. and long 25º W., and then cut the painter and let us go.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I answered, as I had before determined, that I was a Dutch merchant, shipwrecked in a very remote country, whence I had travelled by sea and land to Luggnagg, and then took shipping for Japan; where I knew my countrymen often traded, and with some of these I hoped to get an opportunity of returning into Europe: I therefore most humbly entreated his royal favour, to give order that I should be conducted in safety to Nangasac.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

“Were you shipwrecked?”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to that truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

With such means in his power he had a right to be listened to; and though Mrs. Norris could fidget about the room, and disturb everybody in quest of two needlefuls of thread or a second-hand shirt button, in the midst of her nephew's account of a shipwreck or an engagement, everybody else was attentive; and even Lady Bertram could not hear of such horrors unmoved, or without sometimes lifting her eyes from her work to say, Dear me! how disagreeable!

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Additionally, within the monument expansion area, there are shipwrecks and downed aircraft from the Battle of Midway in World War II, a battle that marked a major shift in the progress of the war in favor of the Allies.

(National monument in Hawaii becomes world's largest marine protected area, NOAA)