wrack

noun

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

   “Therefore, in sign her treasure suffered wrack, Since Hero's time hath half the world been black.”

3. The remains of something; a wreck.

   “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.”

4. (archaic, countable, uncountable)Remnant from a shipwreck as washed ashore; flotsam or jetsam.
5. (archaic, countable, uncountable)The right to claim such items.
6. (countable, uncountable)Any marine vegetation cast up on shore, especially seaweed of the family Fucaceae.
7. (countable, uncountable)Weeds, vegetation, or rubbish floating on a river or pond.
8. (countable, uncountable)A high, flying cloud; a rack.

   “A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of the clouds.”

verb

1. (UK, dialectal, transitive)To execute vengeance on; avenge.
2. (UK, dialectal, transitive)To worry; tease; torment.
3. (transitive)To wreck, especially a ship.

   “Nor did the croakers have long to wait. The second night after the drowning of the mate the little yacht was suddenly wracked from stem to stern. About one o’clock in the morning there was a terrific impact that threw the slumbering guests and crew from berth and bunk. A mighty shudder ran through the frail craft; she lay far over to starboard; the engines stopped.”

4. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of rack (“to cause to suffer pain, etc.”).

   “It marked her first performance in over four years after revealing that her body had been wracked with painful spasms following her diagnosis with the rare and chronic neurological disorder.”