wreak

present singular third person wreaks · participle present wreaking · past wreaked · nonstandard past wrought · obsolete past wroke · participle past wreaked · nonstandard participle past wrought · obsolete participle past wroke · obsolete participle past wroken

1. transitiveTo cause harm; to afflict; to inflict; to harm or injure; to let out harm.

   She wreaked her anger on his car.

   3 more examples

   The earthquake wreaked havoc in the city.

   On the Saturday, October 1, the torrential rains began to wreak damage east of Exeter.

   1960 December, “Talking of Trains: The railways and the Devon floods”, in Trains Illustrated, page 709

   Against a backdrop of economic devastation wreaked by COVID-19, from which the railway has been almost totally insulated by massive sums of public money, the RMT rail union is now calling for industrial action as a pay freeze beckons.

   2020 December 2, Philip Haigh, “A winter of discontent caused by threat of union action”, in Rail, page 62

2. archaicTo chasten, or chastise/chastize, or castigate, or punish, or smite.

   The police abused their authority to wreak an innocent.

   2 more examples

   The criminal has been wreaked by the Judge to spend a year in prison.

   Now was the time to be avenged on his old enemy, to wreak a grudge of seventeen years.

   1841, Thomas Macaulay, Warren Hastings

3. archaicTo inflict or take vengeance on.

   their woe / Broods maddening inwardly and scorns to wreak / Itself abroad;

   1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night

   2 more examples

   So tho' I scarce can ask it thee for hate, / Grant me some knight to do the battle for me, / Kill the foul thief, and wreak me for my son.

   1874, Alfred Tennyson, “Gareth and Lynette”, in Idylls of the King (The Works of Alfred Tennyson; V), cabinet edition, London: Henry S. King & Co., […], →OCLC, page 51

   At heart they hate their horrid fates, and so wreak their poor spite on me who stand for everything they have not, and for all they most crave and never can attain.

   1912 February–July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Under the Moons of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as “Love-making on Mars”, in A Princess of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., October 1917, →OCLC, page 135

4. archaicTo take vengeance for.

   Come wreak his loss, whom bootless ye complain.

   1600, [Torquato Tasso], “(please specify |book=1 to 20)”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, →OCLC

5. intransitivemisspellingMisspelling of reek.

   She wreaked of liquor. She also wreaked of anger, despair and unsatisfied sexuality, all mixed together.

   2007, Bruce Morse, Forgive Myself

plural wreaks

1. archaicliteraryRevenge; vengeance; furious passion; resentment.

   However, no thought touch'd Minerva's mind, That any one should escape his wreak design'd.

   1903, George Chapman, Richard Herne Shepherd, Algernon Charles Swinburne, The Works of George Chapman

   3 more examples

   VVhat barbarous mindes for grieuance more than needs, Vnnaturallie ſeeks wreake vpon their Lord, Their true annointed Prince, their lawfull king:

   1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], →OCLC, Act I

   Would that before my death I might but see my son The empery in my stead over the people hold And rush upon his foes and take on them his wreak, At push of sword and pike, in fury uncontrolled.

   1901, “The History of King Omar Ben Ennuman and His Sons Sherkan and Zoulmekan”, in John Payne, transl., The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, volume 2

   For three causes Duke William entered this land to subdue Harold. One was, for that it was to him given by King Edward his nephew. The second was, to take wreak for the cruel murder of his nephew Alfred, King Edward's brother, and of the Normans, which deed he ascribed chiefly to Harold.

   2003, John Foxe, John Cumming, Book of Martyrs and the Acts and Monuments of the Church

2. archaicliteraryPunishment; retribution; payback.

   Of a surety none murdered the damsel but I; take her wreak on me this moment; for, an thou do not thus, I will require it of thee before Almighty Allah.

   1885, “The Tale of the Three Apples”, in Sir Richard Burton, transl., The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, volume 1