different between wreck vs destruction

English

Etymology

From Middle English wrek, from Anglo-Norman wrek, from Old Norse *wrek (Norwegian and Icelandic rek, Swedish vrak), from Proto-Germanic *wrekan?, whence also Old English wrecan (English wreak), Old High German rehhan, Old Saxon wrekan, Gothic ???????????????????????? (wrikan).

Pronunciation

• enPR: r?k, IPA^(key): /???k/
• Rhymes: -?k

Noun

wreck (plural wrecks)

1. Something or someone that has been ruined.

   He was an emotional wreck after the death of his wife.

   Synonym: basket case, mess

2. The remains of something that has been severely damaged or worn down.
   • 1779, William Cowper, Retirement

     To the fair haven of my native home, / The wreck of what I was, fatigued I come.

3. An event in which something is damaged through collision.

   • the wrecks of matter and the crush of worlds

   • Hard and obstinate / As is a rock amidst the raging floods, / 'Gainst which a ship, of succour desolate, / Doth suffer wreck, both of herself and goods.

   • 1883, John Richard Green, The Conquest of England

     Its intellectual life was thus able to go on amidst the wreck of its political life.

4. (law) Goods, etc. cast ashore by the sea after a shipwreck.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Bouvier to this entry?)

Synonyms

• crash
• ruins

Derived terms

• catch wreck
• shipwreck
• train wreck

Translations

Verb

wreck (third-person singular simple present wrecks, present participle wrecking, simple past and past participle wrecked)

1. To destroy violently; to cause severe damage to something, to a point where it no longer works, or is useless.

   He wrecked the car in a collision.

   That adulterous hussy wrecked my marriage!

2. To ruin or dilapidate.
3. (Australia) To dismantle wrecked vehicles or other objects, to reclaim any useful parts.
4. To involve in a wreck; hence, to cause to suffer ruin; to balk of success, and bring disaster on.

   • Weak and envy'd, if they should conspire, / They wreck themselves, and he hath his Desire.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:destroy

Antonyms

• build
• construct
• make
• produce

Derived terms

• bewreck
• wrecker
• wreckage

Translations

References

Yola

Noun

wreck

1. Alternative form of rocke

English

Etymology

From Middle English destruccioun, from Old French destrucion, from Latin d?structi?, d?structi?nem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d?s?t??k??n/
• Rhymes: -?k??n

Noun

destruction (countable and uncountable, plural destructions)

1. The act of destroying.

   The destruction of the condemned building will take place at noon.

2. The results of a destructive event.

   Amid the seemingly endless destruction, a single flower bloomed.

Antonyms

• construction

Hyponyms

• self-destruction

Related terms

Translations

See also

• devastation

Anagrams

• introducest

French

Etymology

From Old French destrucion, borrowed from Latin destructio, destructionem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?s.t?yk.sj??/

Noun

destruction f (plural destructions)

1. destruction

Derived terms

• arme de destruction massive

Related terms

• détruire

Further reading

• “destruction” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).