wrackful

English

Etymology

From Middle English wrakeful, wrakful, equivalent to wrack +‎ -ful. See also wrake.

Adjective

wrackful (comparative more wrackful, superlative most wrackful)

1. ruinous; destructive.
   • 1904, Henry Leach, The Duke of Devonshire:

     As it happened, his destiny, aided by this opportunity, carried him far beyond, so that the new era in his political fortunes which opened amidst the wrackful confusion in which Liberalism found itself in 1874 and the years immediately following must be accounted the most important and fateful of all.

   • 2000, Brian McNaughton, Even More Nasty Stories:

     No longer surrounded by a wooden shell in a wrackful sea, but by an aluminum box in its slot with all the other boxes, he stared at the pinwheel of stars on the cover of his library book.

   • 2010, Dale M. Moyer Ph. D., The Flash and Outbreak of a Fiery Mind:

     Yes, of course, we worried about the symptoms that were suggestive of a compromised health - the fevers and sweating, poor appetite and weight loss, a wrackful cough with painful breathing and unfamiliar lassitude - all signs producing a fearful trembling in the back of our minds.

References

• “wrackful”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.