# wrack and ruin

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/wrack-and-ruin
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

Complete destruction.

## Examples

- The old house is falling into wrack and ruin.
- After years of neglect, the once beautiful garden has fallen into total wrack and ruin.
- The abandoned factory stood as a haunting monument to the city's industrial past, slowly surrendering its structure to the inevitable forces of wrack and ruin.

## Origin

The expression appears in 1577 as *wracke and ruine*, having been influenced by the earlier variant *go to wrecke* recorded in 1548. The pairing preserves the alliterative weight of the 16th-century phrasing, maintaining the archaic *wrack* alongside the standard term for decay.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.