wreck

n. [ OE. wrak, AS. wræc 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 ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Wrecked p. pr. & vb. n. Wrecking. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Supposing that they saw the king's ship wrecked. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To bring wreck or ruin upon by any kind of violence; to destroy, as a railroad train. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To involve in a wreck; hence, to cause to suffer ruin; to balk of success, and bring disaster on. [ 1913 Webster ]

Weak and envied, if they should conspire,
They wreck themselves. Daniel. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To suffer wreck or ruin. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To work upon a wreck, as in saving property or lives, or in plundering. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act of wrecking, or state of being wrecked. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That which has been wrecked; remains of a wreck. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who causes a wreck, as by false lights, and the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One who searches fro, or works upon, the wrecks of vessels, etc. Specifically: (a) One who visits a wreck for the purpose of plunder. (b) One who is employed in saving property or lives from a wrecked vessel, or in saving the vessel; as, the wreckers of Key West. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A vessel employed by wreckers. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ So called because it often comes in with wreckage. ] (Zool.) A stone bass. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Causing wreck; involving ruin; destructive. “By wreckful wind.” Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. & n. from Wreck, v. [ 1913 Webster ]

Wrecking car (Railway), a car fitted up with apparatus and implements for removing the wreck occasioned by an accident, as by a collision. --
Wrecking pump, a pump especially adapted for pumping water from the hull of a wrecked vessel. [ 1913 Webster ]