noun
wrack
Seaweed washed onto a shore.
A line of wrack marks the reach of the tide.
Etymology
The older word concerns material cast up or left as wreckage. Coastal use specializes it to seaweed deposited along the shore.
More examples
- Flies gather around the drying wrack on the sand.
- The storm leaves piles of wrack along the beach.
- Shorebirds search the wrack for small creatures to eat.
Forms
wrack
Similar words
- seaweed
- Includes marine algae still growing underwater, not just washed ashore.
- kelp
- Specifically large brown seaweed, whether growing underwater or washed ashore.