wrack

Noun · Verb
Synonyms: racksea wrackbust upwreck

WordNet 3.0

Noun (3)

  1. dried seaweed especially that cast ashore
  2. the destruction or collapse of something“wrack and ruin”Synonyms: rack
  3. growth of marine vegetation especially of the large forms such as rockweeds and kelpSynonyms: sea wrack

Verb (1)

  1. smash or break forcefully“The kid busted up the car”Synonyms: bust upwreck
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Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

Wrack \Wrack\, n. A thin, flying cloud; a rack. [1913 Webster]
Wrack \Wrack\, v. t. To rack; to torment. [R.] [1913 Webster]
Wrack \Wrack\, n. [OE. wrak wreck. See Wreck.] [1913 Webster]

1.Wreck; ruin; destruction. [Obs.] --Chaucer. "A world devote to universal wrack." --Milton. [1913 Webster] [1913 Webster]

2.Any marine vegetation cast up on the shore, especially plants of the genera Fucus, Laminaria, and Zostera, which are most abundant on northern shores. [1913 Webster]

3.(Bot.) Coarse seaweed of any kind. [1913 Webster]

Wrack grass, or Grass wrack (Bot.), eelgrass. [1913 Webster]

Wrack \Wrack\, v. t. To wreck. [Obs.] --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
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.] [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

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.[1913 Webster]

2.Destruction or injury of anything, especially by violence; ruin; as, the wreck of a railroad train. [1913 Webster]

The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds.— Addison.[1913 Webster]
Its intellectual life was thus able to go on amidst the wreck of its political life.— J. R. Green.[1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

4.The remain of anything ruined or fatally injured. [1913 Webster]

To the fair haven of my native home, The wreck of what I was, fatigued I come.— Cowper.[1913 Webster]

5.(Law) Goods, etc., which, after a shipwreck, are cast upon the land by the sea. --Bouvier. [1913 Webster]

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