WRACK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does wrack mean? 

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

1. dried seaweed especially that cast ashore

2. the destruction or collapse of something

3. growth of marine vegetation especially of the large forms such as rockweeds and kelp

  Familiarity information: WRACK used as a noun is uncommon.

• WRACK (verb)
  The verb WRACK has 1 sense:

1. smash or break forcefully

  Familiarity information: WRACK used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WRACK (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Dried seaweed especially that cast ashore

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

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

seaweed (plant growing in the sea, especially marine algae)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The destruction or collapse of something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

rack; wrack

Context example:

wrack and ruin

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

demolition; destruction; wipeout (an event (or the result of an event) that completely destroys something)

Derivation:

wrack (smash or break forcefully)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Growth of marine vegetation especially of the large forms such as rockweeds and kelp

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

sea wrack; wrack

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

seaweed (plant growing in the sea, especially marine algae)

• WRACK (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they wrack    ... he / she / it wracks   
Past simple: wracked   
Past participle: wracked   
-ing form: wracking   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Smash or break forcefully

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

bust up; wrack; wreck

Context example:

The kid busted up the car

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

destroy; ruin (destroy completely; damage irreparably)

Sentence frames:

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

Derivation:

wrack (the destruction or collapse of something)

 Context examples 

There it lay, so still and gray beneath the drifting wrack—the home of things noble and of things shameful—the theatre where a new name might be made or an old one marred.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of the clouds.

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

It was a wild, cold, seasonable night of March, with a pale moon, lying on her back as though the wind had tilted her, and flying wrack of the most diaphanous and lawny texture.

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

The wrack had thickened to seaward, and the coast was but a blurred line.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)