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wreak

Archaic Terms
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

To inflict or exact vengeance, punishment, or harm upon someone; to carry out retribution; to give expression to anger or rage, as in "wreak havoc" meaning cause destruction.

Detailed Definition
“Wreak” implies forceful retribution—wreaking havoc, wreaking wrath. In poetry, it describes divine or human justice. The term’s sharpness suits catharsis. Poets use it to explore how anger finds outlet, where wreaking restores or destroys, reinforcing themes of vengeance, power, and the cost of fury in narrative and dramatic contexts.
Example
Example in poetry:
“He sought to wreak vengeance,” in a tragic motive; In Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “Now might I do it pat, now he is praying... / And so he goes to heaven; and so am I revenged... / That would be scanned: a villain kills my father; / And for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send / To heaven... / O, this is hire and salary, not revenge”; “She wreaked her sorrow in song”; “Wreak not wrath on the innocent”; “The storm wreaked havoc on the coast”; The poet wreaked beauty from pain.
Additional Notes
“Wreak” almost always collocates with “vengeance” or “wrath”; in heroic or revenge tragedy, gods or warriors “wreak havoc,” framing destruction as deliberate, righteous, or fated retribution in moral cosmology.
Also Known As
vengeance revenge infliction
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