shipwreck

• shipwrack (obsolete)

From Middle English shipwrak, from Old English sċipwræc (“jetsam”), equivalent to ship +‎ wrack. Cognate with Scots schip-wrak (“to shipwreck”, verb), Swedish skeppsvrak (“shipwreck”), Danish skibsvrag (“shipwreck”). Modern form is due to influence from wreck.

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃɪpɹɛk/

• Audio (Southern England):

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shipwreck (countable and uncountable, plural shipwrecks)

1. A ship that has sunk or run aground so that it is no longer seaworthy; a ruined vessel or its remains.
   • 1670, John Dryden, William D'Avenant, The Tempest:

     heaven will drive shipwrecks ashore to make us all rich

   • 2014, Nick Honachefsky, The Jersey Surf Diaries:

     Blackfishing from the beach. I've done my research. Hundreds of shipwrecks line the Jersey coast, and many of them are close enough to reach with a long cast on a dead-low tide. These wrecks hold tautog, porgies, sea bass, flounder.

2. (countable, uncountable) An event where a ship sinks or runs aground.
   • 1688, John Dryden, The Life of St Francis Xavier:

     they made the coast of Cochin China, and the tempests, which rose at the same time, threatened them more than once with shipwreck

   • 2002, Eva Brann, Homeric Moments, page 48:

     But now, ten years later, after his recent shipwreck, he cannot compete as a runner, though he can outthrow the slighter Phaeacians with the heaviest discus.

3. (figurative) Destruction; disaster; failure; ruin; irretrievable loss.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Timothy 1:19:

     Holding faith and a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck.

   • 1879, John Morley, Burke:

     It was upon an Indian bill that the late ministry had made shipwreck.

   • 1886, Robert Louis Stevensony, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde:

     Then you will have played your part and earned my gratitude completely. Five minutes afterwards, if you insist upon an explanation, you will have understood that these arrangements are of capital importance; and that by the neglect of one of them, fantastic as they must appear, you might have charged your conscience with my death or the shipwreck of my reason.

• shipbreach

• shipwrecky
• Uluburun shipwreck

shipwreck (third-person singular simple present shipwrecks, present participle shipwrecking, simple past and past participle shipwrecked)

1. To wreck a boat through a collision or other mishap.

• castaway