wrack
The remains of somethingThe remains of something; a wreck.
Recorded US: Speaker: Sapaa Recorder: Sapaa, CC0, Wikimedia Commons
» It was a very nerve-wracking experience.
Das war ein sehr nervenaufreibendes Erlebnis. — Waldelfe
CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
8 sensesThe remains of something; a wreck.
Wrack
(dialectal)Ruin; destruction.
Wrack
the destruction or collapse of something
(countable, uncountable)Any marine vegetation cast up on shore, especially seaweed of the family Fucaceae.
dried seaweed especially that cast ashore
(countable, uncountable)Weeds, vegetation, or rubbish floating on a river or pond.
(countable, uncountable)A high, flying cloud; a rack.
(UK, archaic, dialectal, literary)Vengeance; revenge; persecution; punishment; consequence; trouble.
(archaic, countable, uncountable)Remnant from a shipwreck as washed ashore; flotsam or jetsam.
(archaic, countable, uncountable)The right to claim such items.
Examples
13 sentencesIt was a very nerve-wracking experience.
deDas war ein sehr nervenaufreibendes Erlebnis. — Waldelfe
It was a nerve-wracking experience.
I'd definitely say it's nerve wracking.
Tom and Mary wracked their brains.
It was a nerve-wracking year for Tom.
Translations
4 languagesBy meaning 1
Origin
From Middle English wrake, wrache, wreche, from a merger of Old English wracu, wræc (“miseFrom Middle English wrake, wrache, wreche, from a merger of Old English wracu, wræc (“misery, suffering”) and Old English wrǣċ (“vengeance, revenge”). See also wrake.
Late Middle English, from Middle Dutch wrak, ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *wrekaną (“to drive out”), the source of wreak and wreck. Doublet of vraic.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: wracksSynonyms
2 synonyms- the destruction or collapse of something:rack
- growth of marine vegetation especially of the large forms such as rockweeds and kelp:sea wrack
Word family
9 related wordsSee also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.