Other forms: wreaked, wreaking, wreaks
To wreak is to cause great damage or to take revenge. Wreak havoc, wreak vengeance, wreak destruction.
It survives almost entirely in wreak havoc, which is one of the most durable fixed phrases in English. The past tense is wreaked; wrought is the past of work and putting it here is a very common error. Note that the older sense is to avenge, which survives in wreak vengeance; and that wreak and wretch come from the same root about driving out.
1verbwreakTo cause great damage.
“The flood wreaked havoc across the valley, destroying bridges and homes.”
2verbtakeTo take revenge.
“He swore to wreak revenge on the men who had burned his farm.”
wreak is a causing of damage.
Old English wrecan meant to drive out or avenge. Wretch comes from the same root — a wretch was somebody driven out — and so does the German rächen, to avenge.
Proto-Indo-European
*wreg- — push, shove, drive, track down
Proto-Germanic
*wrekaną
Proto-West Germanic
*wrekan
Old English
wrecan
Middle English
wreken
English, today
wreak
From Middle English wreken, from Old English wrecan, from Proto-West Germanic wrekan, from Proto-Germanic wrekaną, from Proto-Indo-European wreg- (“push, shove, drive, track down”). Cognate via Proto-Germanic with Dutch wreken, German rächen, Swedish vräka; cognate via PIE with Latin urgeō (English urge), and distantly cognate with English wreck.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire