[syn: bust up, wreck, wrack]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Wreck \Wreck\, v. t. & n.
See 2d & 3d Wreak.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Wreck \Wreck\, n. [OE. wrak, AS. wr[ae]c exile, persecution,
misery, from wrecan to drive out, punish; akin to D. wrak,
adj., damaged, brittle, n., a wreck, wraken to reject, throw
off, Icel. rek a thing drifted ashore, Sw. vrak refuse, a
wreck, Dan. vrag. See Wreak, v. t., and cf. Wrack a
marine plant.] [Written also wrack.]
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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.
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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.
--Spenser.
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2. Destruction or injury of anything, especially by violence;
ruin; as, the wreck of a railroad train.
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The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds.
--Addison.
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Its intellectual life was thus able to go on amidst
the wreck of its political life. --J. R. Green.
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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.
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4. The remain of anything ruined or fatally injured.
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To the fair haven of my native home,
The wreck of what I was, fatigued I come. --Cowper.
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5. (Law) Goods, etc., which, after a shipwreck, are cast upon
the land by the sea. --Bouvier.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Wreck \Wreck\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wrecked; p. pr. & vb. n.
Wrecking.]
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1. To destroy, disable, or seriously damage, as a vessel, by
driving it against the shore or on rocks, by causing it to
become unseaworthy, to founder, or the like; to shipwreck.
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Supposing that they saw the king's ship wrecked.
--Shak.
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2. To bring wreck or ruin upon by any kind of violence; to
destroy, as a railroad train.
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3. To involve in a wreck; hence, to cause to suffer ruin; to
balk of success, and bring disaster on.
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Weak and envied, if they should conspire,
They wreck themselves. --Daniel.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Wreck \Wreck\, v. i.
1. To suffer wreck or ruin. --Milton.
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2. To work upon a wreck, as in saving property or lives, or
in plundering.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
wreck
n 1: something or someone that has suffered ruin or
dilapidation; "the house was a wreck when they bought it";
"thanks to that quack I am a human wreck"
2: an accident that destroys a ship at sea [syn: shipwreck,
wreck]
3: a serious accident (usually involving one or more vehicles);
"they are still investigating the crash of the TWA plane"
[syn: crash, wreck]
4: a ship that has been destroyed at sea
v 1: smash or break forcefully; "The kid busted up the car"
[syn: bust up, wreck, wrack]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
227 Moby Thesaurus words for "wreck":
accident, assault, atomize, attack, auto, autocar, automobile,
bankrupt, barbarize, batter, beach, blight, bloodbath, blow,
blue ruin, boat, botch, break to pieces, breakdown, breaking up,
breakup, bring to ruin, brutalize, bugger, buggy, burn, bus,
butcher, calamity, car, carcass, carnage, carry on, cast away,
casualty, cataclysm, catastrophe, cave, cave-in, cleave, collapse,
collision, condemn, confound, consume, consumption, contretemps,
crack-up, crash, crate, cripple, damn, damnation, de-energize,
deal destruction, debacle, debilitate, decimate, decimation,
demolish, depredate, depredation, desolate, desolation, despoil,
despoilment, despoliation, destroy, destruction, devastate,
devastation, devour, dilapidate, disable, disassemble, disaster,
disenable, disintegrate, disintegration, dismantle,
disorganization, disruption, dissolution, dissolve, do in, dog,
drain, enfeeble, engorge, force, fragment, go on, gobble,
gobble up, grief, ground, gut, gut with fire, hammer, hamstring,
havoc, heap, hecatomb, holocaust, hors de combat, hulk, ill hap,
impose, inactivate, incapacitate, incinerate, jalopy, kibosh, lame,
lay in ruins, lay waste, loot, machine, maim, make mincemeat of,
mar, maul, mere wreck, misadventure, mischance, misfortune, mishap,
motor, motor vehicle, motorcar, motorized vehicle, mug, nasty blow,
nervous wreck, perdition, pick to pieces, pile up, pileup, pillage,
play havoc with, plunder, pull in pieces, pull to pieces,
pulverize, put, queer, queer the works, rage, ramp, rampage, rant,
rape, rattletrap, ravage, rave, raze, reduce to rubble, rend, riot,
roar, ruin, ruinate, ruination, ruins, run aground, sabotage, sack,
savage, shambles, shatter, shipwreck, shock, skeleton, slaughter,
smash, smashup, sow chaos, spike, split, spoil, spoliation,
staggering blow, storm, strand, subvert, sunder, swallow up,
take apart, take the ground, tear, tear apart, tear around,
tear to pieces, tear to shreds, tear to tatters, terrorize,
throw into disorder, total, total loss, tragedy, trash, tub,
unbuild, undermine, undo, undoing, unfit, unleash destruction,
unleash the hurricane, unmake, upheave, vandalism, vandalize,
vaporize, violate, visit, voiture, washout, waste, weaken, wheels,
wing, wrack, wrack and ruin, wrack up, wreak, wreak havoc
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):
WRECK, mar. law. A wreck (called in law Latin, wreccum maris, and in law
French, wrec de mer,) signifies such goods, as after a shipwreck, are cast
upon land by the sea, and left there within some county, so as not to belong
to the jurisdiction of the admiralty, but to the common law. 2 Inst. 167;
Bract. 1. 3, c. 3; Mirror, c. 1, s. 13, and c. 3.
2. The term `wreck of the sea' includes, 1. Goods found at low water,
between high and low water mark; and 2. Goods between the same limits,
partly resting on the ground, but still moved by the water. 3 Hagg. Adm. R.
257.
3. When goods have touched the ground, and have again been floated by
the tide, and are within low water mark; whether they are to be considered
wreck will depend upon the circumstances whether they were, seized by a
person wading, or swimming, or in a boat. 3 Hagg. Adm. R. 294. But if a
human being, or even an animal, as a dog, cat, hawk, &c. escape alive from
the ship, or if there be any marks upon the goods by which they may be known
again, they are not, at common law, considered as wrecked. 5 Burr. 2738-9; 2
Chit. Com. Law, c. 6, p. 102; 2 Kent, Com. 292; 22 Vin. Ab. 535; 1 Bro. Civ.
Law, 238; Park, Ins. Index, h.t.; Molloy, Jur. Mar. Index, h.t.
4. The act of congress of March 1, 1823, provides, Sec. 21, That,
before any goods, wares or merchandise, which may be taken from any wreck,
shall be admitted to an entry, the same shall be appraised in the manner
prescribed in the sixteenth section of this act and the same proceedings
shall be ordered and executed in all cases where a reduction of duties shall
be claimed on account of damage which any goods, wares, or merchandise,
shall have sustained in the course of the voyage and in all cases where the
owner, importer, consignee, or agent, shall be dissatisfied with such
appraisement, he shall be entitled to the privileges provided in the
eighteenth section of this act. Vide Naufrage.