From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
wreck
n 1: something or someone that has suffered ruin or
dilapidation; "the house was a wreck when they bought it";
"thanks to that quack I am a human wreck"
2: an accident that destroys a ship at sea [syn: shipwreck,
wreck]
3: a serious accident (usually involving one or more vehicles);
"they are still investigating the crash of the TWA plane"
[syn: crash, wreck]
4: a ship that has been destroyed at sea
v 1: smash or break forcefully; "The kid busted up the car"
[syn: bust up, wreck, wrack]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Wreck \Wreck\, v. t. & n.
See 2d & 3d Wreak.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Wreck \Wreck\, n. [OE. wrak, AS. wr[ae]c exile, persecution,
misery, from wrecan to drive out, punish; akin to D. wrak,
adj., damaged, brittle, n., a wreck, wraken to reject, throw
off, Icel. rek a thing drifted ashore, Sw. vrak refuse, a
wreck, Dan. vrag. See Wreak, v. t., and cf. Wrack a
marine plant.] [Written also wrack.]
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1. The destruction or injury of a vessel by being cast on
shore, or on rocks, or by being disabled or sunk by the
force of winds or waves; shipwreck.
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Hard and obstinate
As is a rock amidst the raging floods,
'Gainst which a ship, of succor desolate,
Doth suffer wreck, both of herself and goods.
--Spenser.
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2. Destruction or injury of anything, especially by violence;
ruin; as, the wreck of a railroad train.
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The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds.
--Addison.
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Its intellectual life was thus able to go on amidst
the wreck of its political life. --J. R. Green.
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3. The ruins of a ship stranded; a ship dashed against rocks
or land, and broken, or otherwise rendered useless, by
violence and fracture; as, they burned the wreck.
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4. The remain of anything ruined or fatally injured.
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To the fair haven of my native home,
The wreck of what I was, fatigued I come. --Cowper.
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5. (Law) Goods, etc., which, after a shipwreck, are cast upon
the land by the sea. --Bouvier.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Wreck \Wreck\, v. i.
1. To suffer wreck or ruin. --Milton.
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2. To work upon a wreck, as in saving property or lives, or
in plundering.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Wreck \Wreck\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wrecked; p. pr. & vb. n.
Wrecking.]
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1. To destroy, disable, or seriously damage, as a vessel, by
driving it against the shore or on rocks, by causing it to
become unseaworthy, to founder, or the like; to shipwreck.
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Supposing that they saw the king's ship wrecked.
--Shak.
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2. To bring wreck or ruin upon by any kind of violence; to
destroy, as a railroad train.
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3. To involve in a wreck; hence, to cause to suffer ruin; to
balk of success, and bring disaster on.
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Weak and envied, if they should conspire,
They wreck themselves. --Daniel.
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