wrack

UK: /ræk/ US: /ræk/ ,(rak)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

wrack¹ /ræk/   n. [uncountable]

1. damage or destruction:
   The empire fell to wrack and ruin.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

wrack¹  (rak), n. 

1. wreck or wreckage.
2. damage or destruction:
   wrack and ruin.
3. a trace of something destroyed:
   leaving not a wrack behind.
4. seaweed or other vegetation cast on the shore.

v.t. 

5. to wreck:
   He wracked his car up on the river road.

• Middle English wrak (noun, nominal), Old English wræc vengeance, misery, akin to wracu vengeance, misery, wrecan to wreak bef. 900

wrack²  (rak), n., v.i. 

1. rack⁴.

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

wrack, rack / ræk/ noun

1. collapse or destruction (esp in the phrase wrack and ruin)
2. something destroyed or a remnant of such

verb

1. a variant spelling of rack1

Etymology: Old English wræc persecution, misery; related to Gothic wraka, Old Norse rāk. Compare wreck, wretchUSAGE
The use of the spelling wrack rather than rack in sentences such as she was wracked by grief or the country was wracked by civil war is very common but is thought by many people to be incorrect

wrack / ræk/ noun

1. seaweed or other marine vegetation that is floating in the sea or has been cast ashore
2. any of various seaweeds of the genus Fucus, such as F. serratus (serrated wrack)
3. a wreck or piece of wreckage
4. a remnant or fragment of something destroyed

Etymology: 14th Century (in the sense: a wrecked ship, wreckage, hence later applied to marine vegetation washed ashore): perhaps from Middle Dutch wrak wreckage; the term corresponds to Old English wræc wrack¹