Wracking

wreck or wreckage.
damage or destruction:
wrack and ruin.
a trace of something destroyed:
leaving not a wrack behind.
seaweed or other vegetation cast on the sh-r-.
to wreck:
he wracked his car up on the river road.
rack4 .
also called cloud rack. a group of drifting clouds.
to drive or move, especially before the wind.
contemporary examples

al qaeda’s most dangerous stronghold bruce riedel november 10, 2013
staten island v. new york city marathon megan mcardle november 1, 2012

historical examples

voyage to eternity milton lesser
triplanetary edward elmer smith
two little savages ernest thompson seton
ten from infinity paul w. fairman
the book of humorous verse various
the beasts in the void paul w. fairman
“persons unknown” virginia tracy
running sands reginald wright kauffman

noun
collapse or destruction (esp in the phrase wrack and ruin)
something destroyed or a remnant of such
verb
a variant spelling of rack1
noun
seaweed or other marine vegetation that is floating in the sea or has been cast ash-r-
any of various seaweeds of the genus fucus, such as f. serratus (serrated wrack)
(literary or dialect)

a wreck or piece of wreckage
a remnant or fragment of something destroyed

noun
a framework for holding, carrying, or displaying a specific load or object: a plate rack, a hat rack, a hay rack, a luggage rack
a toothed bar designed to engage a pinion to form a mechanism that will interconvert rotary and rectilinear motions
a framework fixed to an aircraft for carrying bombs, rockets, etc
the rack, an instrument of torture that stretched the body of the victim
a cause or state of mental or bodily stress, suffering, etc; anguish; torment (esp in the phrase on the rack)
(slang, mainly us) a woman’s br–sts
(us & canadian, in pool, snooker, etc)

the triangular frame used to arrange the b-lls for the opening shot
the b-lls so grouped brit equivalent frame

verb (transitive)
to torture on the rack
also wrack. to cause great stress or suffering to: guilt racked his conscience
also wrack. to strain or shake (something) violently, as by great physical force: the storm racked the town
to place or arrange in or on a rack: to rack bottles of wine
to move (parts of machinery or a mechanism) using a toothed rack
to raise (rents) exorbitantly; rack-rent
rack one’s brains, to strain in mental effort, esp to remember something or to find the solution to a problem
noun
destruction; wreck (obsolete except in the phrase go to rack and ruin)
noun
another word for single-foot, a gait of the horse
noun
a group of broken clouds moving in the wind
verb
(intransitive) (of clouds) to be blown along by the wind
verb (transitive)
to clear (wine, beer, etc) as by siphoning it off from the dregs
to fill a container with (beer, wine, etc)
noun
the neck or rib section of mutton, pork, or veal
n.
v.
n.
v.

(also rack out) to sleep; nap; cop zs: i’ll rack out for awhile on the gr-ss till i get it together (1960s+ teenagers)
to denigrate severely; trash: why rack clinton? (1990s+)

rack and ruin, go to
rack one’s brain
rack out
rack up