W R E 
747 
To WREAK, w. a. Old preterite and part. pass, wroke 
and wroken; now i wreaked. It is likely that the word 
wrought, which is only used in the past tense, is originally 
the preterite of wreak, [ppaecan, Saxon; wrecken, Dutch; 
reclcen, German.] To revenge. 
In an ill-hour thy foes thee hither sent. 
Another’s wrongs to wreak upon thyself. Spenser. 
Pale death our valiant leader hath opprest. 
Come wreak his loss, whom bootless ye complain. Fairfax. 
To execute any violent design. This is the sense in which 
it is now used. 
He left the dame. 
Resolv’d to spare her life, and save her shame, 
But that detested object to remove. 
To wreak his vengeance, and to cure her love. Dri/den. 
It is corruptly written for reck, to heed; to care. 
My master is of churlish disposition, 
And little wreaks to find the way to heav’n 
By doing deeds of hospitality. Shakspeare. 
WREAK, s. Revenge; vengeance. Obsolete. 
Fortune, mine avowed foe, 
Her wrathful wreaks themselves do now allay. Spenser. 
Passion; furious fit. Obsolete. 
What and if 
His sorrows have so overwhelm’d his wits. 
Shall we be thus afflicted in his wreaks. 
His fits, his frenzy, and his bitterness? Shakspeare. 
WRE'AKFUL, adj. Revengeful; angry. Not in use. 
Call the creatures, 
Whose naked natures live in all the spite 
Of wreakful heaven. Shakspeare. 
WRE'AKLESS, adj. Unrevenging. 
So flies the wreakless shepherd from the wold; 
So first the harmless flock doth yield his fleece. 
And next his throat unto the butcher’s knife. Shakspeare. 
WREATH, s. [ppeo<5, Saxon, from ppi<5an, torquere.] 
Any thing curled or twisted. 
Clouds began 
To darken all the hill, and smoke to roll 
In dusky wreaths reluctant flames. Milton. 
A garland ; a chaplet. 
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths. 
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments. Shakspeare. 
To WREATH, v. a. pret. wreathed; part. pass. 
wreathed, wreathen. [ppitSan, Saxon.] To curl; to twist; 
to convolve. 
Longaville 
Did never sonnet for her sake compile. 
Nor ever laid his wreathed arms athwart 
His loving bosom to keep down his heart. Shakspeare. 
It is here used for, to writhe. 
Impatient of the wound, 
He rolls and wreaths his shining body round: 
Then headlong shoots beneath the dashing tide. Gap. 
To interweave; to entwine one in another.—Two chains 
of pure gold of wreathen work shalt thou make them, and 
fasten the wreathen chains to the ouches. Ex .—To encir¬ 
cle as a garland. 
In the flow’rs that wreathe the sparkling bowl. 
Fell adders hiss, and pois’nous serpents rowl. Prior. 
To encircle as with a garland; to dress in a garland. 
For thee she feeds her hair. 
And with thy winding ivy wreathes her lance. Pry den. 
To WREATH, v. n. To be interwoven; to be inter¬ 
twined. 
W R E 
Here, where the labourer’s hands have form’d a bow’r 
Of wreathing trees, in singing waste an hour. Pry den. 
WRE'ATHY, adj. Spiral; curled ; twisted.—That which 
is preserved at St. Dennis, near Paris, hath wreathy spires, 
and cochleary turnings about, which agreeth with the de¬ 
scription of an unicorn’s horn in iElian. Brown .—Covered 
with a wreath. 
Less mild the Bacchanalian dames appear. 
When from afar their mighty god they hear, 
And howl about the hills, and shake their wreathy spear. 
Dryden. 
WRECK, s. [ppican. Sax, persequi, affligere, laedere, 
perdere ] Destruction by being driven on rocks or shallows 
at sea; destruction by sea. 
Fair be ye sure; but hard and obstinate. 
As is a rock amidst the raging floods; 
’Gainst which a ship, of succour desolate, 
Doth suffer wreck both of herself and goods. Spenser. 
Dissolution by violence. 
Not only Paradise, 
In this commotion, but the starry cope 
Had gone to wreck. Milton. 
Ruin ; destruction. 
Whether he was 
Combin’d with Norway, or did line the rebel 
With hidden help and vantage; or that with both 
He labour’d in his country’s wreck , I know not. 
Shakspeare. 
It is misprinted here for wreak. 
He cry’d as raging seas are wont to roar. 
When wintry storm his wrathful wreck doth threat. Spenser. 
The thing wrecked: as, the ship was considered as a wreck. 
That most ungrateful boy there by your side 
From the rude sea’s enrag’d and foamy mouth 
Did I redeem; a wreck past hope he was. Shakspeare. 
Dead, undigested stems of grasses and weeds in a ploughed 
land. Norfolk. Grose. 
To WRECK, v. a. To destroy by dashing on rocks or 
sands. 
A pilot’s thumb. 
Wreck'd as homeward he did come. Shakspeare. 
To ruin. 
Weak and envy’d, if they should conspire. 
They wreck themselves, and he hath his desire. Daniel. 
In the following passage it is used for wreak. 
Eighty odd years of sorrow have I seen. 
And each hour’s joy wreck'd with a week of teen. 
Shakspeare. 
To WRECK, v. n. To suffer wreck. 
With manlier objects we must try 
His constancy, with such as have more shew 
Of worth, of honour, glory, and popular praise, 
Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wreck'd. Milton. 
WRE'CKFUL, adj. Causing wreck. 
Thereto they us’d one most accursed order. 
To eate the flesh of men whom they mote fynde. 
And strangers to devoure, which on their border. 
Were brought by error, or by wreckfull wynde. Spenser. 
WRECK REEF BANK, a reef of rocks in the South 
Pacific ocean, on which captain Flinders, on board the Por¬ 
poise and the Cato of London, struck, when on their voyage 
from Port Jackson northward, in order to pass through 
Torres strait. It is about 20 miles long, and from a quarter 
to one mile and a half in breadth; and consists of many 
distinct patches of different magnitude, some above and some 
below water. A sand-bank lies within a mile of the rock on 
which captain Flinders struck, and to which the crews of 
both vessels were indebted for their safety. Lat. of this bank, 
22.11.23. S. long. 155. 18. 50. E. 
WREIGHILL. 
