Meaning

4 senses
  1. (transitive)To cause harm; to afflict; to inflict; to harm or injure; to let out harm.

    The earthquake wreaked havoc in the city.

    She wreaked her anger on his car.

    verursachen, auslassen, anrichten

    наноси́тьnanosítʹ, причиня́тьpričinjátʹ

  2. (archaic)To chasten, or chastise/chastize, or castigate, or punish, or smite.

    The police abused their authority to wreak an innocent.

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

  3. (archaic)To inflict or take vengeance on.

  4. (archaic)To take vengeance for.

    rächen

    мститьmstitʹ

More definitions
  • cause to happen or to occur as a consequence

Examples

17 sentences
  1. Vandals wreaked havoc in the abandoned house.

    Вандали вчинили погром у покинутому будинку.

    ruВандалы устроили погром в заброшенном доме.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · darinmex · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  2. The children wreaked havoc in the house.

    Діти вчинили гармидер удома.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · migl · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  3. The golem wreaked havoc on the village.

    CC0 · Tatoeba · shekitten · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  4. They wreaked bloody havoc on the city.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · tieguy · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  5. A hurricane can wreak destruction everywhere it goes.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · AlanF_US · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Translations

5 languages
Русский
By meaning 2
to cause or inflict causing injury:
to take vengeance:
Deutsch
By meaning 2
to cause or inflict causing injury:
to take vengeance:

Origin

From Middle English wreken, from Old English wrecan, from Proto-West Germanic *wrekan, fro

From Middle English wreken, from Old English wrecan, from Proto-West Germanic *wrekan, from Proto-Germanic *wrekaną, from Proto-Indo-European *wreg- (“push, shove, drive, track down”). Cognate via Proto-Germanic with Dutch wreken, German rächen, Swedish vräka; cognate via PIE with Latin urgēre (English urge), and distantly cognate with English wreck.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

wreaks, wreaking, wreaked, wreaked
Base formwreak · to wreak
3rd person singularwreaks
Present participlewreaking
Past simplewreaked
Past participlewreaked

regular

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theywreak
he, she, itwreaks

Past simpleLesson

all personswreaked

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave wreaked
he, she, ithas wreaked

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill wreak

Synonyms

4 synonyms
Close in meaning

Word family

1 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
wreak — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto