wrack Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun dried seaweed especially that cast ashore
  2. noun the destruction or collapse of something
    rack.
    • wrack and ruin
  3. noun growth of marine vegetation especially of the large forms such as rockweeds and kelp
    sea wrack.
  4. verb smash or break forcefully
    bust up; wreck.
    • The kid busted up the car

WordNet

Wrack noun
Definitions
  1. A thin, flying cloud; a rack.
Wrack transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To rack; to torment. R.
Wrack noun
Etymology
OE. wrak wreck. See Wreck.
Definitions
  1. Wreck; ruin; destruction. Obs. Chaucer.
    "A world devote to universal wrack." Milton.
    used now mainly in the phrase wrack and ruin
  2. Any marine vegetation cast up on the shore, especially plants of the genera Fucus, Laminaria, and Zostera, which are most abundant on northern shores.
  3. (Bot.) Coarse seaweed of any kind.
Wrack transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To wreck. Obs. Dryden.

Webster 1913