WRECKAGE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does wreckage mean? 

• WRECKAGE (noun)
  The noun WRECKAGE has 1 sense:

1. the remaining parts of something that has been wrecked

  Familiarity information: WRECKAGE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WRECKAGE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The remaining parts of something that has been wrecked

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Context example:

they searched the wreckage for signs of survivors

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

part; portion (something less than the whole of a human artifact)

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

flotsam; jetsam (the floating wreckage of a ship)

lagan; lagend; ligan (goods (or wreckage) on the sea bed that is attached to a buoy so that it can be recovered)

Derivation:

wreck (smash or break forcefully)

 Context examples 

It quickly fell apart, and the wreckage is now all around us.

(The Gaia Sausage: the major collision that changed the Milky Way, University of Cambridge)

The device called FINDER (Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response) uses microwave-radar technology to detect heartbeats of victims trapped in wreckage.

(DHS and NASA Technology Helps Save Four in Nepal Earthquake Disaster, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The Yeehats were dancing about the wreckage of the spruce-bough lodge when they heard a fearful roaring and saw rushing upon them an animal the like of which they had never seen before.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

In the midst of the wreckage of overthrown and smashed furniture, partly on his side, his face hidden by an arm, lay a man.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

“Clear that raffle,” I answered, pointing to the tangled wreckage overside.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

They reeled about the room, locked in each other's arms, and came down with a crash across the splintered wreckage of a wicker chair.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A splintered boat and a number of crates and fragments of spars rising and falling on the waves showed us where the vessel had foundered; but there was no sign of life, and we had turned away in despair when we heard a cry for help, and saw at some distance a piece of wreckage with a man lying stretched across it.

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

We had sprung to our feet, and for a few moments we stared in silent amazement at this ponderous piece of wreckage, which told of some sudden and fatal storm far out on the ocean of life.

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

The brutal years had reduced his meagre body to splintered wreckage, and yet the spark of life within burned brightly as ever.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Another time they chanced upon the time-graven wreckage of a hunting lodge, and amid the shreds of rotted blankets John Thornton found a long-barrelled flint-lock.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)