Wrack

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ræk/
• Rhymes: -æk
• Homophones: rack

From Middle English wrake, wrache, wreche, from a merger of Old English wracu, wræc ("misery, suffering") and Old English wrǣċ ("vengeance, revenge").

Full definition of wrack

Noun

1. (archaic, dialectal or literary) Vengeance; revenge; persecution; punishment; consequence; trouble.
2. (archaic, except in dialects) Ruin; destruction.
3. The remains; a wreck.

Verb

1. (UK dialectal, transitive) To execute vengeance; avenge.
2. (UK dialectal, transitive) To worry; tease; torment.

From Middle Dutch (and Dutch) wrak (cognate with German Wrack, Old Norse rek, Danish vrag, Swedish vrak, Old English wræc). Compare Gothic 𐍅𐍂𐌹𐌺𐌰𐌽, 𐍅𐍂𐌰𐌺𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wrakjan, "persecute"), Old Norse reka ("drive").

Noun

1. (archaic) Remnant from a shipwreck as washed ashore, or the right to claim such items.
2. Any marine vegetation cast up on shore, especially seaweed of the genus Fucus.
3. Weeds, vegetation or rubbish floating on a river or pond.
4. A high flying cloud; a rack.
• 1892 , Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Chapter , 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.

Derived terms

• channelled wrack
• flat wrack
• spiral wrack

Verb

1. (transitive) To wreck, especially a ship (usually in passive).
2. Alternative form of rack To cause to suffer pain, etc.

Anagrams

• crawk