What does "wrack" mean?

Wrack: Wreck; ruin; destruction. [Obs.] Chaucer. "A world devote to universal wrack." Milton. wrack and ruin 2. Any marine vegetation cast up on the shore, especially plants of the genera Fucus, Laminaria, and Zostera, which are most abundant on northern shores.

Additional senses

  1. 2.(Bot.) Coarse seaweed of any kind. Wrack grass, or Grass wrack (Bot.), eelgrass.
  2. 3.To wreck. [Obs.] Dryden.

Sources