English

edit

Alternative forms

edit

Etymology

edit

From earlier “wracked by storm”, in sense wrack (destroy). Later sense of “stormy” due to influence by and confusion with rack (torture, suffer); see usage notes for rack.

Adjective

edit

storm-wracked (comparative more storm-wracked, superlative most storm-wracked)

  1. Destroyed by a storm.
  2. Stormy, beset by a storm.
    • 1864 March 12, William Chambers, “Blamyre’s Chambers”, in Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, volume 41, number 11, page 171:
      I believe I eloquently spoke of him, when I proposed his health, as one ‘of those daring spirits, who, proudly turning their backs on an old and effete world, pushed forth over the unsociable and storm-wracked seas to seek a golden future in a region teeming with boundless possibilities and wealth, that need only a daring hand to lay it open to the sun.’
    • 2001, Dana Gioia, Nosferatu: An Opera Libretto:
      I sailed a ship in a storm-wracked sea
      And all were lost except for me.

See also

edit