wrecker
wrecker Lexical Profile
wrecker Game Scores & Validity
• noun
North American A heavy truck equipped with a winch or crane used for hoisting and towing disabled or wrecked motor vehicles.
"After the engine stalled on the highway, we had to call a wrecker to haul the car to the nearest repair shop."
A person or company whose occupation is demolishing old buildings or dismantling damaged vehicles and structures for salvage.
"The city hired a team of wreckers to tear down the abandoned factory before construction on the new park could begin."
A person or thing that destroys, ruins, or undermines a relationship, plan, or institution.
"His constant refusal to compromise proved to be the ultimate wrecker of the peace negotiations."
Historically, a person on shore who lured ships onto coastal rocks using false lights in order to plunder their cargo, or who salvaged goods from shipwrecks.
"Along the rocky peninsula, 18th-century wreckers were notorious for setting decoy lanterns on stormy nights to mislead passing merchant vessels."
• Rhymes for wrecker
Word Origin & Etymology
Formed in English from the verb 'wreck' (derived via Anglo-Norman and Old Norse 'vrek', meaning 'flotsam' or 'shipwreck') combined with the agentive suffix '-er'. Historically, it referred to coastal scavengers who plundered or lured ships onto rocks before shifting in the 20th century to mean a tow truck or demolition worker.