SHIPWRECK • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Shipwreck

Translators

Dictionaries

Courses

Other

Home

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/ʃˈɪprɛk/ Listen

noun

Shipwreck n.

The breaking in pieces, or shattering, of a ship or other vessel by being cast ashore or driven against rocks, shoals, etc., by the violence of the winds and waves.

A ship wrecked or destroyed upon the water, or the parts of such a ship; wreckage.

Fig.: Destruction; ruin; irretrievable loss. "Holding faith and a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck." "It was upon an Indian bill that the late ministry had made shipwreck."

verb

Shipwreck v. t. (past & past part. shipwrecked; pres. part. shipwrecking)

To destroy, as a ship at sea, by running ashore or on rocks or sandbanks, or by the force of wind and waves in a tempest. "Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break."

To cause to experience shipwreck, as sailors or passengers. Hence, to cause to suffer some disaster or loss; to destroy or ruin, as if by shipwreck; to wreck; as, to shipwreck a business.

See images of 'Shipwreck'

Etymology of 'Shipwreck'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Shipwreck" Quotes from Famous Books

... well for you to talk that way, Ishmael Worth. But I know one thing. I know I never heard of any sort of a ship going safe into port more than two or three times in the whole course of my life. And I have heard of many and many a shipwreck!" said Hannah, nodding her head, with the air of one who had just ...

— Self-Raised • Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth

... paddle a canoe and shoot and fish like an Indian, cook and garden and hew and build—indeed there seemed nothing he could not do and had not done, and all this along with the care of his office, as much a missionary one as any could be. Peril of shipwreck and peril of fire, peril of frost and peril of heat, peril of sickness, pain and death, peril of men, ignorant and wicked, of wild beasts and wilder storms—all these he had braved with his wife and little ones for the sake of his convictions ...

— Crowded Out! and Other Sketches • Susie F. Harrison

... character. She was one of those women who must be proud of their men, who love to be ruled, but only by a conqueror, who delight to sink themselves, but in power, not in impotence. And now she was confronted by the shipwreck not merely of her hopes, but also of her belief. She saw a hulk drifting at the mercy of the waves that, perhaps, would soon engulf it. But she was not only despairing, she was raging too. For she was a woman with ...

— The Dweller on the Threshold • Robert Smythe Hichens

... but Nelly—dear old Nell—think what you're doing. Take warning from one who once made shipwreck of her own life. Think no man common who loves you—no matter what his ways are, or his manners, or his speech. Love makes the true nobility. It ennobles him who loves you and you who are beloved. Cling to ...

— Capt'n Davy's Honeymoon - 1893 • Hall Caine

... Adrienne's absence from England seemed to bring Max nearer, to make him more her own again. Even though they were separated, there was a certain consolation in the knowledge that the woman whose close friendship with her husband had helped to make shipwreck of their happiness was going out of his life, though it might be only for a ...

— The Splendid Folly • Margaret Pedler

More quotes...