Dictionary

wreak en · VERB · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• rēk (UK)
• /ɹiːk/ (UK)
• /ɹik/ (US)
• (US) audio

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.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To cause harm; to afflict; to inflict; to harm or injure; to let out harm.
   • The earthquake wreaked havoc in the city.
   • She wreaked her anger on his car.
   • On the Saturday, October 1, the torrential rains began to wreak damage east of Exeter. 1960 December, “Talking of Trains: The railways and the Devon floods”, in Trains Illustrated, page 709:
   • Against a backdrop of economic devastation wreaked by COVID-19, from which the railway has been almost totally insulated by massive sums of public money, the RMT rail union is now calling for industrial action as a pay freeze beckons. 2020 December 2, Philip Haigh, “A winter of discontent caused by threat of union action”, in Rail, page 62:
2. (archaic) To chasten, or chastise/chastize, or castigate, or punish, or smite.
   • The criminal has been wreaked by the Judge to spend a year in prison.
   • Now was the time to be avenged on his old enemy, to wreak a grudge of seventeen years. 1841, Thomas Macaulay, Warren Hastings:
   • The police abused their authority to wreak an innocent.
3. (archaic) To inflict or take vengeance on.
   • At heart they hate their horrid fates, and so wreak their poor spite on me who stand for everything they have not, and for all they most crave and never can attain. 1912 February–July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Under the Moons of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as “Love-making on Mars”, in A Princess of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., October 1917, →OCLC, page 135:
   • So tho' I scarce can ask it thee for hate, / Grant me some knight to do the battle for me, / Kill the foul thief, and wreak me for my son. 1874, Alfred Tennyson, “Gareth and Lynette”, in Idylls of the King (The Works of Alfred Tennyson; V), cabinet edition, London: Henry S. King & Co., […], →OCLC, page 51:
   • their woe / Broods maddening inwardly and scorns to wreak / Itself abroad; 1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night:
4. (archaic) To take vengeance for.
   • Come wreak his loss, whom bootless ye complain. 1600, [Torquato Tasso], “(please specify |book=1 to 20)”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, →OCLC:
5. (alt-of, intransitive, misspelling) Misspelling of reek.
   alt of reek
   • She wreaked of liquor. She also wreaked of anger, despair and unsatisfied sexuality, all mixed together. 2007, Bruce Morse, Forgive Myself:

Forms

Deriveds

wreak havoc

Translations (36)

es provocar (to cause or inflict causing injury) · tr öç almak (to take vengeance) · de verursachen (to cause or inflict causing injury) · es vengarse de (to take vengeance) · cs způsobit (to cause or inflict causing injury) · da volde (to cause or inflict causing injury) · tr intikam almak (to take vengeance) · de rächen (to take vengeance) · pl pomścić (to take vengeance) · tr hınç çıkarmak (to take vengeance) · cs napáchat (to cause or inflict causing injury) · tr almak (to cause or inflict causing injury) · sh nanijeti (to cause or inflict causing injury) · pl wyładowywać (gniew) (to cause or inflict causing injury) · ro a cauza (to cause or inflict causing injury) · ro provoca (to cause or inflict causing injury) · pl siać (spustoszenie) (to cause or inflict causing injury) · de anrichten (to cause or inflict causing injury) · de auslassen (to cause or inflict causing injury) · pl wyładować (gniew) (to cause or inflict causing injury) · sh počiniti (to cause or inflict causing injury) · tr çıkarmak (to cause or inflict causing injury) · bg отмъщавам си (to take vengeance) · tr hınç almak (to take vengeance) · es infligir (to cause or inflict causing injury) · sv vålla (to cause or inflict causing injury) · fi kohdistaa (to cause or inflict causing injury) · cs nadělat (škodu) (to cause or inflict causing injury) · fi kurittaa (to take vengeance) · es volcar (to cause or inflict causing injury) · ru наноси́ть (to cause or inflict causing injury) · ro vărsa nervii (to cause or inflict causing injury) · ru причиня́ть (to cause or inflict causing injury) · cmn 造成 (to cause or inflict causing injury) · fi aiheuttaa (to cause or inflict causing injury) · ru мстить (to take vengeance)

wreak en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• rēk (UK)
• /ɹiːk/ (UK)
• /ɹik/ (US)
• (US) audio

Etymology

From Middle English wreke, wrake, Northern Middle English variants of wreche, influenced later by Etymology 1, above. Compare Dutch wraak.

Meanings

1. (archaic, literary) Revenge; vengeance; furious passion; resentment.
   • Would that before my death I might but see my son The empery in my stead over the people hold And rush upon his foes and take on them his wreak, At push of sword and pike, in fury uncontrolled. 1901, “The History of King Omar Ben Ennuman and His Sons Sherkan and Zoulmekan”, in John Payne, transl., The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, volume 2:
   • VVhat barbarous mindes for grieuance more than needs, Vnnaturallie ſeeks wreake vpon their Lord, Their true annointed Prince, their lawfull king: 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], →OCLC, Act I:
   • However, no thought touch'd Minerva's mind, That any one should escape his wreak design'd. 1903, George Chapman, Richard Herne Shepherd, Algernon Charles Swinburne, The Works of George Chapman:
   • For three causes Duke William entered this land to subdue Harold. One was, for that it was to him given by King Edward his nephew. The second was, to take wreak for the cruel murder of his nephew Alfred, King Edward's brother, and of the Normans, which deed he ascribed chiefly to Harold. 2003, John Foxe, John Cumming, Book of Martyrs and the Acts and Monuments of the Church:
2. (archaic, literary) Punishment; retribution; payback.
   • Of a surety none murdered the damsel but I; take her wreak on me this moment; for, an thou do not thus, I will require it of thee before Almighty Allah. 1885, “The Tale of the Three Apples”, in Sir Richard Burton, transl., The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, volume 1:

Forms