Find the word definition

Crossword clues for wrecking

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Wrecking

Wreck \Wreck\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wrecked; p. pr. & vb. n. Wrecking.]

  1. 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.

    Supposing that they saw the king's ship wrecked.
    --Shak.

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

  3. To involve in a wreck; hence, to cause to suffer ruin; to balk of success, and bring disaster on.

    Weak and envied, if they should conspire, They wreck themselves.
    --Daniel.

Wrecking

Wrecking \Wreck"ing\, a. & n. from Wreck, v.

Wrecking car (Railway), a car fitted up with apparatus and implements for removing the wreck occasioned by an accident, as by a collision.

Wrecking pump, a pump especially adapted for pumping water from the hull of a wrecked vessel.

Wiktionary
wrecking

n. 1 The act by which something is wrecked. 2 The taking of valuables from a shipwreck close to the shore. vb. (present participle of wreck English)

WordNet
wrecking
  1. n. the event of a structure being completely demolished and leveled [syn: razing]

  2. destruction achieved by wrecking something [syn: laying waste, ruin, ruining, ruination]

Wikipedia
Wrecking (shipwreck)

Wrecking is the practice of taking valuables from a shipwreck which has foundered close to shore. Often an unregulated activity of opportunity in coastal communities, wrecking has been subjected to increasing regulation and evolved into what is now known as marine salvage. Wrecking is no longer economically significant; however, as recently as the 19th century in some parts of the world, it was the mainstay of otherwise economically marginal coastal communities.

A traditional legend is of wreckers deliberately decoying ships on to coasts using tricks (in particular false lights), so that they run ashore and can be plundered. While this has been depicted in many stories and legends, it is uncertain that this has ever happened.

Wrecking (Soviet crime)

Wrecking ( or vreditel'stvo, lit. "inflicting damage", "harming"), was a crime specified in the criminal code of the Soviet Union in the Stalin era. It is often translated as " sabotage"; however, "wrecking", "diversionist acts", and "counter-revolutionary sabotage" were distinct sub-articles of Article 58 (RSFSR Penal Code) (58-7, 58-9, and 58-14 respectively), and the meaning of "wrecking" is closer to "undermining".

These three categories are distinguished in the following way.

  • Diversions were acts of immediate infliction of physical damage on state and cooperative property.
  • Wrecking was deliberate acts aimed against normal functioning of state and cooperative organisations, e.g., giving deliberately wrong commands.
  • Sabotage was non-execution or careless execution of one's duties.

As applied in practice, "wrecking" and "sabotage" referred to any action which negatively affected the economy, including failing to meet unrealistic economic targets, allegedly causing poor morale among subordinates (e.g. by complaining about conditions of work), lack of effort, or other incompetence. Thus, it referred to economic or industrial sabotage in the very broadest sense. The definion of sabotage was interpreted dialectically and indirectly, so any form of non-compliance with Party directives could have been considered a 'sabotage'.

Usage examples of "wrecking".

They had been congratulated on their escape from the wrecking of the biplane, and Dora had written to Dick urging him to give up flying.

You and Neiss, yes, and Mollen, too, are deliberately wrecking me in the name of trying to build me into something.

If we can possibly avoid wrecking this little planet of ours, we will.

Someone had either punched or kicked the plasterboard or paneling so violently that it was almost as if a wrecking crew had crashed through.

One of the trainmen went to the nearest station to telephone for the wrecking crew.

He was a Glistern, raised in the belief that Anton Koffield had personally destroyed his world by wrecking Circum Central and thus preventing five rescue ships from getting to Glister.

Other than out the back door, which they had already discovered the intruder or intruders had popped with a wrecking bar, the real-world lockpick of choice.

After she passes a wrecking shop and a market and a tiny post office, she spies the turnoff James Morris has told her about-a swampy stretch of pickerelweed and brackish water that was once a swimming hole with exceedingly warm temperatures.

Listen to the Wrecking Crew, and if they said to do something, do it now, no questions asked.

Planners had hoped to turn the area into a sort of Old Town, complete with boutiques and restaurants, but as of that moment it was still waiting for a wrecking crew.

O may her voice have power to say How soon the wrecking discords cease, When every wandering wave is gay With golden argosies of peace!

If he had deeply honored her when he supposed that as a sincere, honest friend only she had spoken her strong, true words, which might save him from wrecking his life from impulses of shame and wounded pride, how instantaneously was this honor changed into reverence and wonder as he recognized her self-sacrifice at the dictates of conscience.

He carried a long wrecking bar, the kind used to open heavy crates off-loaded from riverboats, and he looked eager to use it.

The quantity of energy released in such a contest could boil his tissues outright, wrecking the information structure that defined him.

The skeletal boom of a crane with a wrecking ball lolling from the end hung against the maroon sky like the head and neck of a brontosaurus with its tongue out.