wrack

Meanings

Noun

• Vengeance; revenge; persecution; punishment; consequence; trouble.
• Ruin; destruction.
• The remains; a wreck.
• Remnant from a shipwreck as washed ashore, or the right to claim such items.
• Any marine vegetation cast up on shore, especially seaweed of the family Fucaceae.
• Weeds, vegetation or rubbish floating on a river or pond.
• A high flying cloud; a rack.

Verb

• To execute vengeance; avenge.
• To worry; tease; torment.
• To wreck, especially a ship.
• Alternative of rack

Origin

• From Middle English wrake, wrache, wreche, from a merger of Old English wracu, wræc and Old English wrǣċ ("vengeance, revenge"). See also wrake.
• Late Middle English, from Middle Dutch wrak, ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *wrekaną, the source of wreak and wreck. vraic.
• Cognate with German Wrack, Old Norse rek, Danish vrag, Swedish vrak, Old English wræc); also compare Gothic 𐍅𐍂𐌹𐌺𐌰𐌽, 𐍅𐍂𐌰𐌺𐌾𐌰𐌽, Old Norse reka ("drive").