shipwreck
pronunciation
How to pronounce shipwreck in British English:
UK [ˈʃɪprek]
How to pronounce shipwreck in American English:
US [ˈʃɪpˌrɛk]
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- Noun:
- a wrecked ship (or a part of one)
- an irretrievable loss
- an accident that destroys a ship at sea
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- Verb:
- ruin utterly
- suffer failure, as in some enterprise
- cause to experience shipwreck
- destroy a ship
Word Origin
- shipwreck (n.)
- mid-15c., from ship (n.) + wreck (n.). Earlier it meant "things cast up from a shipwreck" (c. 1100). The earlier word for "shipwreck" in the modern sense was Middle English schipbreke, "'ship-break,'" from a North Sea Germanic word; compare West Frisian skipbrek, Middle Dutch schipbroke, German Schiffbruch, Old English scipgebroc. Old English scipbryce meant "right to claim goods from a wrecked ship."
- shipwreck (v.)
- 1580s, "cause to wreck;" c. 1600, "to suffer shipwreck," from shipwreck (n.). Related: Shipwrecked.
Example
- 1. It spent more than 150 years maturing in a shipwreck at the bottom of the baltic sea .
- 2. The titanic may just be the most famous shipwreck in history .
- 3. Though no sunstones have survived from viking days , despite the frequency of ship burials of viking chiefs , there is one tantalising find from a more recent shipwreck .
- 4. Japanese researchers scouring the deep seabed around nagasaki uncovered the remains of a mongol shipwreck from the 13th century .
- 5. Once it becomes evident that their conditions will not work , german leaders will have to choose between a shipwreck and a change in course .