wreck

v. ruin, destroy; devastate; shatter (e.g. one's hopes); be destroyed; be sunken (e.g. of a ship)

n. destruction; ruins, debris, remains; junk; nervous person; sunken ship; debris washed ashore

Wreck may refer to:A collision of an automobile, aircraft or other vehicleShipwreck, the remains of a ship after a crisis at seaReceiver of Wreck, an official of the British government whose main task is to process incoming reports of wreckRambling Wreck, a car that leads the Georgia Tech football team onto the field prior to every game in Bobby Dodd StadiumWREK (FM), a radio station at Georgia Tech, named after the carIn ornithology, an event where large numbers of seabirds are driven inland due to adverse weather
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(v. t.)
To involve in a wreck; hence, to cause to suffer ruin; to balk of success, and bring disaster on.
  

(v. t.)
To destroy, disable, or seriously damage, as a vessel, by driving it against the shore or on rocks, by causing it to become unseaworthy, to founder, or the like; to shipwreck.
  

(v. t.)
To bring wreck or ruin upon by any kind of violence; to destroy, as a railroad train.
  

(v. t.)
The ruins of a ship stranded; a ship dashed against rocks or land, and broken, or otherwise rendered useless, by violence and fracture; as, they burned the wreck.
  

(v. t.)
The remain of anything ruined or fatally injured.
  

(v. t.)
The destruction or injury of a vessel by being cast on shore, or on rocks, or by being disabled or sunk by the force of winds or waves; shipwreck.
  

(v. t.)
Goods, etc., which, after a shipwreck, are cast upon the land by the sea.
  

(v. t.)
Destruction or injury of anything, especially by violence; ruin; as, the wreck of a railroad train.
  

(v. t. & n.)
See 2d & 3d Wreak.
  

(v. i.)
To work upon a wreck, as in saving property or lives, or in plundering.
  

(v. i.)
To suffer wreck or ruin.
  

A wrecked vessel, either submerged or visible, which is attached to or foul of the bottom or cast up on the shore. (DOI4)

A wreck (called in law Latin, wreccum maris, and in law French, wrec de mer,) signifies such goods, as after a shipwreck, are cast upon land by the sea, and left there within some county, so as not to belong to the jurisdiction of the admiralty, but to the common law.

The term `wreck of the sea' includes, 1. Goods found at low water, between high and low water mark; and 2. Goods between the same limits, partly resting on the ground, but still moved by the water.

When goods have touched the ground, and have again been floated by the tide, and are within low water mark; whether they are to be considered wreck will depend upon the circumstances whether they were, seized by a person wading, or swimming, or in a boat. But if a human being, or even an animal, as a dog, cat, hawk, etc. escape alive from the ship, or if there be any marks upon the goods by which they may be known again, they are not, at common law, considered as wrecked.

The Act of Congress of March 1, 1823, provides that, before any goods, wares or merchandise, which may be taken from any wreck, shall be admitted to an entry, the same shall be appraised in the manner prescribed in the sixteenth section of this act and the same proceedings shall be ordered and executed in all cases where a reduction of duties shall be claimed on account of damage which any goods, wares, or merchandise, shall have sustained in the course of the voyage and in all cases where the owner, importer, consignee, or agent, shall be dissatisfied with such appraisement, he shall be entitled to the privileges provided in the eighteenth section of this act.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.