noun / verb

wreck

REK/rek/

Something severely damaged or ruined.

The small rowboat is a wreck against the dock piling.

A wrecked small rowboat lies split and crushed against a dock piling after a collision, broken hull ribs and detached plank clearly show badly ruined remains; tiny water strip only, no people.

Etymology

Anglo-French wrec supplied a word first used for goods washed ashore after shipwreck. Its meaning expanded to a ruined ship and then to the ruined remains of other things.

In context

Adventure Is Out There14:43

… if there's a wreck, you have to sit in traffic as they cleared out.

Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge Tennessee Full Extended Tour

More examples

The storm wrecked several homes along the coast.
One careless decision can wreck years of careful planning.
After three sleepless nights, I feel like a wreck.

Forms

wreck · wrecks · wrecked · wrecking

wreckage noun — Broken remains of something badly damaged.

Similar words

ruin: Ruin emphasizes lost value or usefulness, not necessarily physical destruction.
destroy: Destroy suggests damage so complete that nothing usable remains.