shipwreck

What it means

1. countableuncountableA ship that has sunk or run aground so that it is no longer seaworthy; a ruined vessel or its remains.

   heaven will drive shipwrecks ashore to make us all rich

   1670, John Dryden, William D'Avenant, The Tempest

   3 more examples

   Blackfishing from the beach. I've done my research. Hundreds of shipwrecks line the Jersey coast, and many of them are close enough to reach with a long cast on a dead-low tide. These wrecks hold tautog, porgies, sea bass, flounder.

   2014, Nick Honachefsky, The Jersey Surf Diaries

   The shipwreck is the earliest examples yet found of a propeller-driven steamship on the Great Lakes.

   2015 October 22, Michael Pearson, “153-year-old shipwreck found in Lake Ontario”, in CNN, archived from the original on 07 Mar 2016

   Marine archaeologists have discovered that two shipwrecks in Costa Rica are the remains of Danish slave ships missing for centuries — a finding that restores the ancestral lineage of an entire Costa Rican community more than 300 years after the vessels’ occupants reached its shores.

   2025 May 2, Amarachi Orie, “Archaeologists discover true identity of Costa Rica shipwrecks long thought to be pirate ships”, in CNN, archived from the original on 17 May 2025

2. countableuncountableAn event where a ship sinks or runs aground.

   they made the coast of Cochin China, and the tempests, which rose at the same time, threatened them more than once with shipwreck

   1688, John Dryden, The Life of St Francis Xavier

   1 more example

   But now, ten years later, after his recent shipwreck, he cannot compete as a runner, though he can outthrow the slighter Phaeacians with the heaviest discus.

   2002, Eva Brann, Homeric Moments, page 48

3. countablefigurativelyuncountableDestruction; disaster; failure; ruin; irretrievable loss.

   It was upon an Indian bill that the late ministry had made shipwreck.

   1879, John Morley, Burke

   2 more examples

   Holding faith and a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Timothy 1:19

   Then you will have played your part and earned my gratitude completely. Five minutes, afterwards, if you insist upon an explanation, you will have understood that these arrangements are of capital importance; and that by the neglect of one of them, fantastic as they must appear, you might have charged your conscience with my death or the shipwreck of my reason.

   1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Dr. Lanyon’s Narrative”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, pages 93–94

In a sentence

heaven will drive shipwrecks ashore to make us all rich

1670, John Dryden, William D'Avenant, The Tempest

Where it comes from

1. Old Englishsċipwræc“jetsam”
2. Middle Englishschipwrak
3. Englishshipwreck

From Middle English schipwrak, from Old English sċipwræc (“jetsam”), equivalent to ship + wrack. Cognate with Scots schip-wrak (“to shipwreck”, verb), Dutch scheepswrak (“shipwreck”), German Schiffswrack (“shipwreck”), Swedish skeppsvrak (“shipwreck”), Danish skibsvrag (“shipwreck”). Modern form is due to influence from wreck. By surface analysis, ship + wreck.