Frequently Asked Questions
Do you rack or wrack your brain?
Wrack and rack are etymologically distinct, meaning they come from different words. Many usage guides will advise that you should use wrack for meanings such as "to utterly ruin," and rack for "to cause to suffer torture, pain, anguish, or ruin." If you follow this advice, the proper choice for what you do to your brain when thinking very hard is rack. However, wrack has long been used as a variant of rack, and numerous fine writers have avowedly wracked their brains or found something nerve-wracking.
Is it racked or wracked with pain?
Some guides feel that "racked with pain" is the preferable choice, although wrack is in many cases an acceptable variant. The verbs are often conflated despite their very different origins (the former from Middle Dutch rekken, meaning "to stretch," and the latter from the Middle English word for shipwreck, wrak).
"Do you rack up or wrack up debts?"
While there are a number of settings in which wrack is considered an acceptable variant of rack, the accumulation of debts is not one of them. In this context rack up typically means "to achieve, score; to accumulate."
Synonyms
Examples of wrack in a Sentence
The Arizona Republic, 7 Apr. 2024
That’s what happened to Carol Rosen, a 70-year-old retired schoolteacher whose final weeks were wracked with excruciating pain.
—Elizabeth Robinson, NBC News, 27 Mar. 2024
Another image shows a woman slumped over a wooden fence, wracked with grief at being separated from her mother.
—Bryce Miller, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Mar. 2024
In recent years, Near Intelligence has been wracked by scandal and previously filed for bankruptcy amid claims of internal malfeasance.
—Lucas Ropek / Gizmodo, Quartz, 28 Mar. 2024
More than five months later, Israelis describe a shattered sense of security, and are still wracked with anxiety about the more than 100 hostages held in Gaza.
—Cate Brown, Washington Post, 25 Mar. 2024
Haiti has been wracked by violence and unrest, and the capital city has been overtaken by gangs.
—Phil Helsel, NBC News, 20 Mar. 2024
But amid widespread violence that has wracked their nation since the end of civil war, citizens are voting for security over democratic governance.
—Whitney Eulich, The Christian Science Monitor, 1 Feb. 2024
Hungary has been wracked by energy inflation since the EU tore up its contracts with Russia.
—Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 31 Jan. 2024
Brian Amaral, BostonGlobe.com, 31 May 2023
Historically, small amounts of Sargassum have washed ashore with other beach wrack material such as sea grass, sponges and soft corals.
—George Petras, USA TODAY, 20 Mar. 2023
The legislation would set the boundary for people to exercise their constitutional right to access the shore in Rhode Island at six feet landward of the mark left by the water from a rising tide — in other words, six feet landward of the seaweed line or the wrack line.
—Brian Amaral, BostonGlobe.com, 6 Apr. 2023
Clad in the coastal fashion – red fisherman’s shirt, khaki shorts, and flip-flops – the architect of the island’s defenses peers at his creation: an award-winning network of dunes, wind fences, and walkovers, overclad with native plants, some washed in on wrack.
—Patrik Jonsson, The Christian Science Monitor, 15 Sep. 2021
Beach wrack helps stabilize shorelines and feeds dune plants.
—George Petras, USA TODAY, 20 Mar. 2023
Meanwhile, food and medicine shortages – which come as Pakistan’s security situation deteriorates and power outages wrack cities – have many working-class people pointing fingers at their rulers.
—Hasan Ali, The Christian Science Monitor, 23 Feb. 2023
The House last year passed its own legislation fixing the line at six feet landward of what’s often called the wrack line or seaweed line.
—Brian Amaral, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Feb. 2023
The first explorations of its material properties date back to World War II, but today fabrics like SeaCell and C-Fiber are made from knotted wrack, a bumpy brown algae harvested from the sea off Iceland.
—New York Times, 22 Apr. 2021
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'wrack.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Noun (1)
Middle English wrak, borrowed from Middle Dutch wrac, wracke & Middle Low German wrak, going back to Germanic *wrak-a- "something driven," noun derivative from the base of Germanic *wrekan- "to drive out, pursue" — more at wreak
Noun (2)
Middle English wrake, wrak, going back to Old English wracu (genitive wræce) & wræc "vengeance, persecution, misery," noun derivatives from the base of Germanic *wrekan- "to drive out, pursue" — more at wreak
Verb (1)
earlier, "to undergo shipwreck, cast ashore by shipwreck," derivative of wrack entry 1
Verb (2)
by alteration
Noun (1)
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Noun (2)
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Verb (1)
1562, in the meaning defined above
Verb (2)
circa 1555, in the meaning defined above
Noun (3)
1591, in the meaning defined above
Noun (4)
1794, in the meaning defined above
Phrases Containing wrack
Articles Related to wrack
Dictionary Entries Near wrack
Cite this Entry
“Wrack.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wrack. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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Kids Definition
wrack
noun
More from Merriam-Webster on wrack
Nglish: Translation of wrack for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of wrack for Arabic Speakers
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