MEANING
1. To damage something so badly that it is ruined or no longer works properly.
2. To spoil a plan, opportunity, relationship, or other valued thing completely.
3. A ship, vehicle, or other thing left badly damaged or beyond ordinary use.
Use it for
showing a building or vehicle badly damaged; describing a storm destroying a place; distinguishing a ruined whole from scattered wreckageDistinguishes destructive damage, a surviving ruined object, and a person overwhelmed by strain. Writing functions: Ruin / Desolation.
Words that belong together
- wreck a building
- a wrecked car
- a storm wrecks something
On the page
The storm wrecked the summerhouse but left the mourning wreath untouched.
Vandals had wrecked the chapel’s interior without disturbing the locked vestry.
One concealed debt wrecked their plan to keep the house.
He knew the confession might wreck the family’s carefully maintained peace.
At low tide the wreck lay exposed beyond the ruined pier.
Word forms
- Base
- wreck
- Past tense
- wrecked
- Past participle
- wrecked
- Present participle
- wrecking
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- wreck
- Present continuous
- am/is/are wrecking
- Present perfect
- have/has wrecked
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been wrecking
- Past
- wrecked
- Past continuous
- was/were wrecking
- Past perfect
- had wrecked
- Past perfect continuous
- had been wrecking
- Future
- will wreck
- Future continuous
- will be wrecking
- Future perfect
- will have wrecked
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been wrecking
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Verb: wreck, wrecks, wrecked, wrecked, wrecking. Countable noun: wreck, wrecks. Normally transitive as a verb; wreckage is the scattered material, while a wreck may be the damaged whole. Register: neutral. Commonness: common; person-as-wreck use informal (dictionary-informed qualitative editorial estimate; not a measured frequency).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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