wreck

verb

wrecked; wrecking; wrecks

transitive verb

1

: to cast ashore

2

a

: to reduce to a ruinous state by or as if by violence

a country wrecked by war

ambition wrecked his marriage

b

: shipwreck

c

: to ruin, damage, or imperil by a wreck

wrecked the car

3

: bring about, wreak

wreck havoc

intransitive verb

1

: to become wrecked

2

: to rob, salvage, or repair wreckage or a wreck

Synonyms of wreck

• scuttle
• shipwreck

Examples of wreck in a Sentence

I wrecked my mother's car.

Many houses were wrecked by the hurricane.

The affair wrecked his marriage.

Bad weather wrecked our vacation.

Recent Examples on the Web

Those teams already are wrecking the owners’ claims that baseball lacks competitive balance. —Ken Rosenthal, New York Times, 27 May 2026

Junk yards and auto wrecking services will soon be paying $354 instead of $273 for their new license, and secondhand dealers will see reduced fees — paying $354 instead of $480. —Julie Gallant, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 May 2026

My body is wrecked, my lower back is f---ed, but nothing is broken, which feels like a miracle. —Wesley Stenzel, Entertainment Weekly, 22 May 2026

Then, in October, the pace picked up; over just a few days, a series of explosions wrecked a police monument in Chicago, the Marin County Hall of Justice, a Queens courthouse, and the Harvard Center for International Affairs. —Literary Hub, 19 May 2026

Word History

Etymology

Middle English wrekkyd (past participle), probably derivative of wrek wreck entry 1

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Phrases Containing wreck

• nervous wreck
• train wreck

Rhymes for wreck

• beck
• breck
• check
• cheque
• czech
• deck
• fleck
• keck
• mech
• neck
• peck
• reck

Kids Definition

wreck

1 of 2 noun

ˈrek 

1

: goods cast upon the land by the sea after a shipwreck

2

: shipwreck entry 1 sense 2

3

: the action of wrecking

4

: a destructive crash

was injured in a car wreck

5

: the broken remains of something wrecked or ruined

6

: something in a state of ruin or decay

the old house was a wreck

7

: a person in poor health or spirits

wreck

2 of 2 verb

1

a

: to reduce to a state of ruin by or as if by violence

a country wrecked by war

jealousy wrecked their friendship

b

: shipwreck entry 2 sense 2

2

: to damage or ruin by a wreck

wrecked the car