1The destruction of a ship at sea; a shipwreck.

1. 1.1 A ship destroyed at sea.
   the salvaging of treasure from wrecks

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Plans to move the wreck of destroyer HMS Wakeful out of a shipping lane have been amended to allow the ship to safely remain where she sank during the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940.
   • They made their unusual find after echo-sounding equipment on board their ship detected the wreck, and they then explored its hold on a further dive.
   • Rigby visited the wreck of the Titanic last year on a Russian submarine and will lecture about his trip at the Dundee exhibition.
   • The Navy has placed warning signs around the area to warn fisherman and commercial ships of the wreck as to avoid any accidents.
   • And only a couple of weeks ago, divers also thought they had come across the wreck of the Darwin Princess, a 23 metre ferry last seen in Frances Bay.
   • The wrecks are home to a wide variety of corals and marine life including angelfish, barracudas, margates, sharks, snappers and turtles.
   • Buried in the sand near the Australian cities of Sydney and Perth are what are apparently the wrecks of fifteenth-century Chinese ships.
   • For 35 years he was a diver, and spent much of his time underwater exploring the wrecks of ships swallowed up by the vast ocean.
   • ‘All of the wrecks were fascinating in their own right - and being war graves, were afforded the appropriate respect at all times,’ he added.
   • There are vestigial remains of a Roman harbour on the western part of the island, and a number of wrecks of Roman vessels have been located in the waters nearby.
   • They are giving me the chance to do what no other marine archaeologist has done - investigate a 17th-century warship wreck at great depth.
   • With the Western penchant for turning any tragedy into a tourist attraction, today, the Historical Shipwreck Trail takes you past as many as 25 known wrecks.
   • Snorkelers can have a grand time floating just 30 feet above the stern, watching the divers below and the thousands of fish that live in the wreck.
   • The Royal Australian Navy has confirmed that a wreck located 10 nautical miles east of Cape Moreton is not the Centaur.
   • Everyone hopes to find the treasure hidden in the wreck, even though many doubt that it's there at all.
   • The wrecks of such ships have inevitably been targets for treasure-seekers.
   • Scuba divers examining wrecks should take particular care.
   • The wreck of a 100-year-old fishing boat has been discovered in the depths of Loch Ness.
   • The area abounds with wrecks and other reminders of the war, and regularly anchoring in Tokyo Bay is a sobering reminder of why the area is known as Iron Bottom Sound.
   • The area is home to Kowloon Bridge, the world's largest diveable wreck.

   Synonyms

   shipwreck, sunken ship, sunken vessel, derelict, hulk
2. 1.2Law Goods brought ashore by the sea from a wreck and not claimed by the owner within a specified period (usually a year)
   the profits of wreck

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The sale of the manor in 1681 included profits of wreck, stone, and timber from the shore, and new land 'accruing by violence of the sea'.
3. 1.3 Something, especially a vehicle or building, that has been badly damaged or destroyed.
   the plane was reduced to a smoldering wreck

   figurative the wreck of their marriage

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Most of the large buildings had been pounded, wrecks of buses and cars that had been incinerated were lying all over the roads, and smoke filled the air.
   • Just as in a marriage relationship, if we seek our own well being, our marriages are wrecks.
   • The driver of the pickup, who walked away from the wreck of his vehicle, was also taken to hospital, where he received 12 stitches to his forehead.
   • The car was reduced to a mangled wreck, and debris and broken glass were scattered across the road.
   • Mr Galayini buys wrecks from auctions, pulls them apart and sells the bits to smash repairers.
   • The station was a wreck when it was bought 18 years ago and the garden non-existent.
   • When she first set foot in it, it was more of a wreck, but a listed building nonetheless.
   • Christa and John Hale visibly fill with pride as they describe how they have transformed their beloved Highland home from a dilapidated wreck into a rural idyll.
   • A row of emergency vehicles lined up behind the wreck, and a fire truck sprayed the flames with water.
   • It was like walking around at the site of a spaceship wreck - huge pieces of dismantled machinery everywhere.
   • They often have spare parts from other wrecks they have bought.
   • The airport runway is lined with the rusted wrecks of other planes cannibalized for parts.
   • There was an awkward semicircle of wheeled vehicles arranged around the wreck, all black and white with lights on.
   • When he returned, his unit's vehicles were burning wrecks and many of its personnel were dead or wounded.
   • Since its closure in October, the club building became a burnt-out wreck after being targeted by vandals and being gutted by two separate fires.
   • It's where locals have dumped the wrecks of maybe a thousand cars, just a few hundred metres from the famous rock.
   • Unfortunately, the Outer Hebrides are also littered with the wrecks of abandoned cars - 600 at the last count.
   • All that was left of the aircraft was a burned-out wreck, with blackened pieces scattered across the sands.
   • Flames visible for miles tore through the roof of a disused school in Windhill, Shipley, last night, leaving the building a wreck.
   • Sergeant Barry Woon said a truck driver came across the mangled wrecks and radioed police for help.

   Synonyms

   wreckage, debris, detritus, remainder
4. 1.4 The disorganized remains of something that has suffered damage or destruction.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • There was wreck and destruction to the far horizon.
   • Wreck and ruin stared the passengers in the face at every turn, and the number of trees torn up by the roots, walls thrown down, and houses unroofed, is incalculable.
   • The ranch still looked a wreck; bits of debris and broken buildings were strewn all over the place.
   • As Mio and Mayu explore the village, now a slowly collapsing wreck, Mayu begins to act strangely, as though she's seeing things that Mio isn't.
   • This bloody and destructive battle was continued with unabated fury for four hours, and the scene of wreck and devastation which presented itself at its termination was such as has been seldom before witnessed.
5. 1.5North American A road or rail crash.
   a train wreck

   Example sentencesExamples

   • With those numbers, it's just a matter of time before the next fatal wreck occurs, Rendon said.
   • Gordon led laps for the first time since Daytona and was a threat to win until his car was damaged in a wreck.
   • If saving human lives is the great desideratum, then there is more to be gained by prevention of drowning and auto wrecks than by the abolition of war.
   • He swerved to the left of the vehicle barely avoiding a wreck.
   • That same night an entire catch crew was wiped out by a truck wreck.
   • Several minor wrecks, mostly in rail yards, have helped feed community fears.
   • The father of his younger brothers treated Erik and his older sister as his own, but he died last summer in a car wreck.
   • The song was available on phonograph records within less than a year of the wreck and remains one of the better of the railroad disaster genre.
   • If the engine of a train suddenly goes off the rails, a wreck ensues.
   • Cars and bicyclists often are not looking for each other, which can lead to wrecks at intersections.
   • At least a dozen times over the past two years I've heard the sickening thud and tortured tire screech that signals a fresh wreck in the intersection.
   • Michigan's no-fault insurance law provides unlimited lifetime coverage for medical expenses tied to auto wrecks.
   • A fatal car wreck late Sunday night forced investigators to close a southwest Valley intersection through Monday morning, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
   • The driver overshot the last station before the wreck, and a crew member and several passengers speculated the train was speeding to make up time.

   Synonyms

   crash, accident, smash, bump, knock, impact, hit, strike, clash
6. 1.6 A person whose physical or mental health or strength has failed.
   the scandal left the family emotional wrecks

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The phone call will come, and even though I have been expecting it, I'll still be an emotional wreck.
   • Having moved house seven times since 1980 we should be gibbering wrecks but we are pleased to say we are as excited as two children on Christmas morning.
   • I knew she was an emotional wreck, but I was a little surprised when she broke down into tears right in front of me.
   • ‘The last two years made me an emotional wreck,’ said Holmes.
   • I left the Academy in 1987 a physical and emotional wreck, with a chronic drinking problem… 18 years old.
   • My dad was an emotional wreck and my mom completely withdrew from everything around her.
   • He was a physical wreck and is looking forward to spending time at home.
   • He always insists he's fine, but he's a wreck and he's destroying himself without even realizing what's happening.
   • The burly Scotsman, who earlier this year was an emotional wreck after the public breakup of his marriage, had tears in his eyes.
   • In the past few years, flying has become such an ordeal that take-off and landing now reduce me to a quivering, sweaty-palmed wreck.
   • Are pupils and parents really so terrible they can reduce grown-up professionals to quivering wrecks?
   • This thought was enough to turn Kat into a nervous, nail-biting wreck.
   • He subsequently fronts the media to announce that he's become a guilt ridden wreck as a result of his uncharacteristic moment of madness.
   • The walk had left me a physical wreck and when I pulled up outside the house and my mum was there with open arms, I almost burst into tears.
   • She couldn't offer any emotional stability, because she was an emotional wreck as it was.
   • The whole point of this storyline is that he has reduced her to a gibbering wreck through emotional and verbal cruelty without any physical violence.
   • It was a pitiful sight to see such a fine ambassador for British sport sitting on the kerb, head in hands, shaking her head, a physical and emotional wreck.
   • I am a physical wreck, I do not sleep properly and I do not eat properly.
   • I knew I was going to be an emotional wreck, judging from how quickly my moods were changing.
   • Oh, but until that second acceptance arrived, I remained a nervous wreck.

1Cause the destruction of (a ship) by sinking or breaking up.

1. 1.1 Involve (someone) in a wreck.
   sailors who had the misfortune to be wrecked on these coasts

   Example sentencesExamples

   • His luck then goes from bad to worse as he is brought before the Spanish Inquisition, swindled out of a Mexican fortune, wrecked on a desert island and separated from his true love, Cunegonde.
   • Her great grandfather lived quite an adventurous life and was ship wrecked off the coast of Iceland.
   • So, there were an Irishman, an Englishman and an American wrecked on an island.
   • Individual scenes are well staged: when wrecked on the shores of Pentapolis, Pericles arrives in a launderette swimming in water and bedecked with old clothes.

   Synonyms

   land, reach the shore, run ashore
2. 1.2usually as noun wreckinghistorical no object Cause the destruction of a ship in order to steal the cargo.
   the locals reverted to the age-old practice of wrecking

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The disorientation is fitting because, startling as it now seems, wrecking was practiced not by rogues or villains but by unremarkable locals.
   • Breton seaweed workers - like those burning kelp in the Scottish islands - were very poor, supplementing their meagre incomes with fishing, farming and sometimes wrecking.
   • The seashore inhabitants gained some recompense by resorting to wrecking, a tradition which lasted well into the 19th cent., and by their own privateering and smuggling.
   • This meant that the sailors from these ports could do what they wanted, including wrecking, grounding and plundering other ships.
   • The crew took the Pacific Emerald for wrecking but the second part of the settlement was never honoured.
3. 1.3archaic no object Suffer or undergo shipwreck.
4. 1.4 Destroy or severely damage (a structure or vehicle)
   the blast wrecked more than 100 houses

   Example sentencesExamples

   • He flew into a severe storm, his balloon was wrecked, and he plummeted seaward from the sky.
   • A well-known restaurant has been wrecked in a blaze.
   • Photographs of the apparent aftermath - showing wrecked vehicles and dented police helmets - have since appeared on several Weblogs.
   • Four lorries were also wrecked in the blaze which was fought by 35 firemen at Barlows Mill off Stand Lane.
   • The car was wrecked, but 52-year-old Moira, who was cut free by firefighters, suffered only minor injuries and shock.
   • A disabled Darwen pensioner has spoken of his terror at the crash which wrecked his new car.
   • Shops and homes were damaged and some 50 cars and vans were wrecked as they were swept through the streets - some of them ending up floating out to sea.
   • Gangs of yobs have caused more than £40,000 of damage after wrecking 34 lampposts in York suburbs in a fortnight.
   • Arsonists wrecked a dozen cars at a scrapyard in Bolton last night.
   • He could have lost control of his bike, wrecking it and causing injury or even death.
   • Thus it came as a surprise when, after my brother had gotten in about as much trouble as either of us had ever gotten into - drinking and wrecking his car - my father did not respond with anger.
   • He drove into a huge pothole and wrecked the truck.
   • Two serious accidents, destroying four vehicles and wrecking a house wall and a traffic light at the junction, have already occurred since the lights failed last Thursday morning.
   • That Nolan was there to play his part was a near-miracle in itself after the youngster's lucky escape from that morning's dramatic smash that wrecked his car.
   • One local said he had seen up to 15 cars wrecked by one of the blasts, with a number of people still inside the club.
   • A pensioner has slammed vandals who wrecked his car, cutting off his disabled wife's lifeline to the outside world.
   • Arsonists torched tyres to start a blaze which wrecked railway carriages, investigators believe.
   • A Bradford rioter claimed he tried to stop youths wrecking cars only minutes after being filmed throwing stones himself.
   • About 2 hours ago, I crashed and totally wrecked my car.
   • The fact that some structures were wrecked while others remained untouched could point to inferior building methods.

   Synonyms

   demolish, crash, smash, smash up, ruin, damage, damage beyond repair, destroy, break up, dismantle, vandalize, deface, desecrate, sabotage, leave in ruins
5. 1.5 Spoil completely.
   an eye injury wrecked his chances of a professional career

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Two days before he was due to return home he suffered a leg injury which effectively wrecked his high hopes for the season.
   • But the Bulldogs' potential dream season was wrecked by more injuries than one team can be expected to handle.
   • Mrs Gault said the gang must be caught before they wreck more lives.
   • Even though Enid manages to engineer and then wreck his chances with another woman, it is very unlikely that that relationship would have developed.
   • Yet Larkham says that the rapid recovery of debutant lock Justin Harrison, whose career was almost wrecked by a similar injury last year, has been an inspiration to him in his darker moments.
   • Gordon is just happy to be taking part in the Games as a serious knee injury in 2002 threatened to wreck his career.
   • In the end they ruled out only such serious illnesses as active or malignant disease which the doctor thought would totally wreck the child's chance of a healthy life.
   • Balshaw's hopes of resuming his England career in the Six Nations have almost certainly been wrecked by his latest injury blow.
   • Keith Wood will be with the 41-man Irish squad on the tour but has no intention of playing in any of the three games after a season wrecked by injury.
   • Wannstedt wrecked his chances of succeeding with the Bears by micromanaging and by being too uptight and too insecure.
   • ‘You can cut down on expenditure without wrecking your social life or spoiling your studies,’ it says.
   • I'm not going to stand here and let you wreck her life.
   • It was a welcome return to the big stage for Parkinson after injury wrecked his campaign last year.
   • And many potential employees wreck their chances of being taken on by telling wild lies on their CVs, dressing bizarrely or even having nose-rings.
   • Westwood blamed him for wrecking his chance of setting a course record.
   • Holmes has spent most of her career cursing her luck after a string of injuries wrecked her chances of gold at major championships.
   • Jackson was quick out of his blocks and, unlike the Commonwealth Games final where he clattered the first barrier and wrecked his gold chances, he was cleanly into the race.
   • A hamstring injury wrecked his bid for a medal at this season's world championships in Canada, but he's now looking forward to going for gold in Manchester.
   • Currie seems to still hold a candle for Major, despite publicly wrecking his life.

   Synonyms

   ruin, spoil, disrupt, undo, mar, play havoc with, make a mess of, put an end to, end, bring to an end, put a stop to, prevent, frustrate, blight, crush, quell, quash, dash, destroy, scotch, shatter, devastate, demolish, sabotage
6. 1.6usually as noun wreckingNorth American no object Engage in breaking up badly damaged vehicles, demolishing old buildings, or similar activities to obtain usable spares or scrap.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • The contractor should plan for the wrecking of the structure, the equipment to do the work, manpower requirements, and the protection of the public.
   • The license allows a business to buy and resell vehicles for wrecking, processing, scrapping, recycling or dismantling.