wrack
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
wrack
n 1: dried seaweed especially that cast ashore
2: the destruction or collapse of something; "wrack and ruin"
[syn: {wrack}, {rack}]
3: growth of marine vegetation especially of the large forms
such as rockweeds and kelp [syn: {sea wrack}, {wrack}]
v 1: smash or break forcefully; "The kid busted up the car"
[syn: {bust up}, {wreck}, {wrack}]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Wrack \Wrack\, n. [OE. wrak wreck. See {Wreck}.]
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1. Wreck; ruin; destruction. [Obs.] --Chaucer. "A world
devote to universal wrack." --Milton.
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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.
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3. (Bot.) Coarse seaweed of any kind.
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{Wrack grass}, or {Grass wrack} (Bot.), eelgrass.
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from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Wreck \Wreck\, n. [OE. wrak, AS. wr[ae]c exile, persecution,
misery, from wrecan to drive out, punish; akin to D. wrak,
adj., damaged, brittle, n., a wreck, wraken to reject, throw
off, Icel. rek a thing drifted ashore, Sw. vrak refuse, a
wreck, Dan. vrag. See {Wreak}, v. t., and cf. {Wrack} a
marine plant.] [Written also {wrack}.]
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1. The destruction or injury of a vessel by being cast on
shore, or on rocks, or by being disabled or sunk by the
force of winds or waves; shipwreck.
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Hard and obstinate
As is a rock amidst the raging floods,
'Gainst which a ship, of succor desolate,
Doth suffer wreck, both of herself and goods.
--Spenser.
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2. Destruction or injury of anything, especially by violence;
ruin; as, the wreck of a railroad train.
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The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds.
--Addison.
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Its intellectual life was thus able to go on amidst
the wreck of its political life. --J. R. Green.
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3. The ruins of a ship stranded; a ship dashed against rocks
or land, and broken, or otherwise rendered useless, by
violence and fracture; as, they burned the wreck.
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4. The remain of anything ruined or fatally injured.
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To the fair haven of my native home,
The wreck of what I was, fatigued I come. --Cowper.
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5. (Law) Goods, etc., which, after a shipwreck, are cast upon
the land by the sea. --Bouvier.
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from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
138 Moby Thesaurus words for "wrack":
algae, autophyte, bean, bloodbath, blue ruin, bracken, breakdown,
breaking up, breakup, bring to ruin, brown algae, carnage,
cataclysm, catastrophe, cave, cave-in, climber, collapse, condemn,
conferva, confervoid, confound, consume, consumption, crack-up,
crash, creeper, damn, damnation, deal destruction, debacle,
decimate, decimation, demolish, depredate, depredation, desolate,
desolation, despoil, despoilment, despoliation, destroy,
destruction, devastate, devastation, devour, diatom, disaster,
disintegration, disorganization, disruption, dissolution, dissolve,
engorge, fern, fruits and vegetables, fucus, fungus, gobble,
gobble up, grapevine, green algae, gulfweed, gut, gut with fire,
havoc, hecatomb, herb, heterophyte, holocaust, incinerate, ivy,
kelp, lay in ruins, lay waste, legume, lentil, liana, lichen,
liverwort, mold, moss, mushroom, parasite, parasitic plant, pea,
perdition, perthophyte, phytoplankton, planktonic algae,
plant families, puffball, pulse, ravage, raze, red algae, rockweed,
ruin, ruinate, ruination, rust, saprophyte, sargasso, sargassum,
sea lentil, sea moss, sea wrack, seaweed, shambles, shipwreck,
slaughter, smash, smashup, smut, spoliation, succulent, swallow up,
throw into disorder, toadstool, total loss, unbuild, undo, undoing,
unleash destruction, unleash the hurricane, unmake, upheave,
vandalism, vandalize, vaporize, vetch, vine, washout, waste, wort,
wrack and ruin, wreak havoc, wreck
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