different between wrack vs wrick

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æk/
• Rhymes: -æk
• Homophone: rack

Etymology 1

From Middle English wrake, wrache, wreche, from a merger of Old English wracu, wræc (“misery, suffering”) and Old English wr?? (“vengeance, revenge”). See also wrake.

Noun

wrack (plural wracks)

1. (archaic, dialectal or literary) Vengeance; revenge; persecution; punishment; consequence; trouble.
2. (archaic, except in dialects) Ruin; destruction.

3. The remains; a wreck.
   • 2011, John Jeremiah Sullivan, "Mr. Lytle: An Essay", in Pulphead:

     Lytle was already moaning in shame, fallen back in bed with his hand across his face like he'd just washed up somewhere, a piece of wrack.

Alternative forms

• wrake (obsolete)

Derived terms

• wrack and ruin

Translations

Verb

wrack (third-person singular simple present wracks, present participle wracking, simple past and past participle wracked)

1. (Britain dialectal, transitive) To execute vengeance; avenge.
2. (Britain dialectal, transitive) To worry; tease; torment.

Etymology 2

Late Middle English, from Middle Dutch wrak. Doublet of vraic.

Cognate with German Wrack, Old Norse rek, Danish vrag, Swedish vrak, Old English wræc); also compare Gothic ???????????????????????? (wrikan), ???????????????????????????? (wrakjan, “persecute”), Old Norse reka (“drive”).

Noun

wrack (countable and uncountable, plural wracks)

1. (archaic) Remnant from a shipwreck as washed ashore, or the right to claim such items.
2. Any marine vegetation cast up on shore, especially seaweed of the genus Fucus.
3. Weeds, vegetation or rubbish floating on a river or pond.
4. A high flying cloud; a rack.

Derived terms

• channelled wrack
• flat wrack
• spiral wrack
• tidewrack
• wrack line
• wrack zone

Translations

Verb

wrack (third-person singular simple present wracks, present participle wracking, simple past and past participle wracked or wrackt)

1. (transitive) To wreck, especially a ship (usually in passive).
2. Alternative form of rack (“to cause to suffer pain, etc.”)

Usage notes

Frequently confused with rack (“torture; suffer pain”), though traditionally means “wreck”. Etymologically, wrack and ruin (“complete destruction”) and storm-wracked (“wrecked by a storm”) are the only terms that derive from wrack, rather than rack. However in usage forms such as nerve-wracking are common, and considered acceptable by some authorities; see usage notes for rack.

Derived terms

• storm-wracked

Translations

Anagrams

• crawk

English

Etymology

From Middle English wricken, probably from Middle Dutch wricken (Modern Dutch wrikken (“to wriggle”)) or Middle Low German wricken (“to move jerkily; sprain”), from Proto-Germanic *wrig?n? (“to wriggle”), from Proto-Indo-European *wrey?- (“to turn, wrap, tie”), from *wer- (“to turn, bend”).

See also Low German wriggen, German Low German wricken (“to row; scull; move back and forth”)). Compare also Danish vrikke (“to move; turn; wriggle”), Swedish vricka (“to sprain; twist; scull”).

Verb

wrick (third-person singular simple present wricks, present participle wricking, simple past and past participle wricked)

1. (dialect) To twist; turn
2. (dialect) To wrench; strain

Noun

wrick (plural wricks)

1. A painful muscular spasm in the neck or back

Synonyms

• crick