Wrack Meaning
/ɹæk/Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounVengeance; revenge; persecution; punishment; consequence; trouble.
nounThe remains of something; a wreck.
Sentence Examples
The storm left a large amount of wrack on the beach this morning.
To wrack your brain means to try very hard to remember a thing.
Stormy waves washed seaweed and wrack onto the shore.
CEFR Practice Quiz
Severe pain can ____ the body all night despite strong medicine.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The sailors tried to several save what they could from the ____ of the ship after it hit the rocks today.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English wrake, wrache, wreche, from a merger of Old English wracu, wræc (“misery, suffering”) and Old English wrǣċ (“vengeance, revenge”). See also wrake.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Lytle was already moaning in shame, fallen back in bed with his hand across his face like he'd just washed up somewhere, a piece of wrack."
— 2011, John Jeremiah Sullivan, “Mr. Lytle: An Essay”, in Pulphead:
"The dead mans corps hath made ſome Serpents weépe, / Such rewth may ryſe in beaſts of bloudy race: / And yet can man (which bragges aboue the reſt) / Uſe wracke for rewth? can murder like him beſt?"
— 1575, Jacques du Fouilloux, “The Hare, to the Hunter”, in George Gascoigne, transl., The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting. […], London: […] Thomas Purfoot, published 1611, →OCLC, page 177:
"Therefore, in sign her treasure suffered wrack,
Since Hero's time hath half the world been black."
— c. 1593, Christopher Marlowe, Hero and Leander, page 7:
"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."
— 1892, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2011:
"Nor did the croakers have long to wait. The second night after the drowning of the mate the little yacht was suddenly wracked from stem to stern. About one o’clock in the morning there was a terrific impact that threw the slumbering guests and crew from berth and bunk. A mighty shudder ran through the frail craft; she lay far over to starboard; the engines stopped."
— 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 115:
Explore More C2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Severe pain can ____ the body all night despite strong medicine.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The sailors tried to several save what they could from the ____ of the ship after it hit the rocks today.