▪ I. wracked, ppl. a.
(rækt)
[f. wrack v.2 + -ed1.]
That has undergone or suffered wreck, esp. shipwreck; ruined, destroyed.
| 1581 A. Hall Iliad i. 15 Yeelding the Greekes a thorough feare, the Troyans courage hie, So that the wracked Campe restore his credite worthilie. 1608 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. Schisme 371 A hundred Prophets..from sad drowning keep The wracked planks on th' Idol-Ocean deep. 1648 J. Beaumont Psyche iv. lxxxv, When Ioe an angry Sea..on its proud waves bears In dreadfull triumph a wrack'd Man. 1652 Needham tr. Selden's Mare Cl. 157 Those wrack't goods that had been seized by the Receivers of his Customs. 1747 New Canto Spenser's F.Q. xxiii, The wrack'd Merchant, now secure, from Shore Looks back with Dread on all his Perils past. 1864 Mrs. Lloyd Ladies Polc. 17 Every body's troubles is her troubles, from a wracked boat to a broken putcher! 1875 Morris æneid ix. 263 Two cups..which my father took from wracked Arisbe's hold. |
▪ II. wracked
erron. f. racked ppl. a.3
| 1606 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. Tropheis 823 Hee makes th' whole Kingdom's wracked ribs to meet. 1656 Cowley Davideis iii. 683 Merab rejoyc'd in her wrackt Lovers pain. a 1699 J. Beaumont Psyche x. ccxxxiv, New fear Stormed their wracked Souls. 1974 Times Lit. Suppl. 19 Apr. 417/4 Lowry could be sodden, sullen, wracked with shame and remorse: a figure of total anguish. 1974 A. Davis Autobiography iv. 279 During the few months of our friendship, I don't think I realized how wracked he must have been by that decade of accumulated frustrations, by that terrible sense of impotence. |