wreak
UK /ɹiːk/ · US /ɹik/ verb, noun
Forms wreaks wreaking wreaked wrought wroke wroken
- verb (transitive) To cause harm; to afflict; to inflict; to harm or injure; to let out harm. “The earthquake wreaked havoc in the city.”
- verb (archaic) To chasten, or chastise/chastize, or castigate, or punish, or smite. “The police abused their authority to wreak an innocent.”
- verb (archaic) To inflict or take vengeance on.
- verb (archaic) To take vengeance for.
- noun (archaic, literary) Revenge; vengeance; furious passion; resentment.
- noun (archaic, literary) Punishment; retribution; payback.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English wreken, from Old English wrecan, from Proto-West Germanic *wrekan, from Proto-Germanic *wrekaną, from Proto-Indo-European *wreg- (“push, shove, drive, track down”). Cognate via Proto-Germanic with Dutch wreken, German rächen, Swedish vräka; cognate via PIE with Latin urgēre (English urge), and distantly cognate with English wreck.
From Middle English wreke, wrake, Northern Middle English variants of wreche, influenced later by Etymology 1, above. Compare Dutch wraak.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To reck; to care. [Obs.] Shak.
- verb To revenge; to avenge. [Archaic]
- verb To execute in vengeance or passion; to inflict; to hurl or drive; as, to wreak vengeance on an enemy.
- noun Revenge; vengeance; furious passion; resentment. [Obs.] Shak.
Etymology [OE. wrek to revenge, punish, drive out, AS. wrecan; akin to OFries. wreka, OS. wrekan to punish, D. wreken to avenge, G. rächen, OHG. rehhan, Icel. reka to drive, to take vengeance, Goth. wrikan to persecute, Lith. vargas distress, vargti to suffer distress, L. urgere to drive, urge, Gr. Urge, Wreck, Wretch.]
Etymology [Cf. AS. wræc exile, persecution, misery. See Wreak, v. t.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “wreak”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details