wrack
To make someone suffer a lot (in body or mind).
To cause someone to suffer extreme physical pain or mental distress.
To damage something very badly.
To cause very great damage to something, especially over a period of time or by repeated violent events.
The broken pieces left after something is destroyed.
The broken remains of a ship or other structure after it has been destroyed; wreckage.
Seaweed on the beach.
Seaweed, especially kelp or other large seaweed, found floating at sea or washed up on a beach.
- Base: wrack
- 3rd Person Singular: wracks
- Present Participle: wracking
- Past: wracked
go to wrack and ruin
1deteriorate badly over time
To get worse and worse until it is badly damaged.
- After the factory closed, the whole neighborhood went to wrack and ruin.
- If you leave the roof unfixed, the house will go to wrack and ruin.
- The garden went to wrack and ruin during the long drought.
- The building went to wrack and ruin.
wrack and ruin
1complete destruction or collapse
A condition of being badly damaged and almost destroyed.
- The old theater has fallen into wrack and ruin.
- Years of neglect left the building in wrack and ruin.
- Without repairs, the bridge will soon be wrack and ruin.
- The house fell into wrack and ruin.
wrack your brains
1think very hard
To try very hard to think of something.
- I've been wracking my brains trying to remember her name.
- They wracked their brains for a solution, but nothing worked.
- He wracked his brains to figure out where he’d left the keys.
- I wracked my brains for the answer.