wrack

plural wracks · alternative obsolete wrake

1. The remains of something; a wreck.

   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

2. UKarchaicdialectalliteraryVengeance; revenge; persecution; punishment; consequence; trouble.

   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

3. dialectalarchaic except UKRuin; destruction.

   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

present singular third person wracks · participle present wracking · participle past wracked · past wracked

1. UKdialectaltransitiveTo execute vengeance on; avenge.
2. UKdialectaltransitiveTo worry; tease; torment.

plural wracks

1. archaiccountableuncountableRemnant from a shipwreck as washed ashore; flotsam or jetsam.
2. archaiccountableuncountableThe right to claim such items.
3. countableuncountableAny marine vegetation cast up on shore, especially seaweed of the family Fucaceae.
4. countableuncountableWeeds, vegetation, or rubbish floating on a river or pond.
5. countableuncountableA high, flying cloud; a rack.

   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

present singular third person wracks · participle present wracking · participle past wracked · past wracked · participle past wrackt · past wrackt · first person past singular wracked · archaic present second person singular wrackest · past second person singular wracked · archaic past second person singular wrackedst · present singular third person wracks · archaic present singular third person wracketh · past singular third person wracked · past plural wracked · past subjunctive wracked · participle present wracking

1. transitiveusually passive voiceTo wreck, especially a ship.

   1 more example

   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

2. alternativeAlternative form of rack (“to cause to suffer pain, etc.”).

   It marked her first performance in over four years after revealing that her body had been wracked with painful spasms following her diagnosis with the rare and chronic neurological disorder.

   2024 July 26, “Fans rave as Celine Dion and a FLYING cauldron save washout Paris Olympics opening ceremony”, in dailymail.co.uk