Now arch. and rare. Also 4–5 wreker(e, 5 -ar, 6 Sc. wrekar. [f. WREAK v. + -ER1. Cf. OHG. rechâri (MHG. -ære, -er, G. rächer), MLG. wreker, wrecher, (M)Du. wreker, and WRECHER.] One who takes vengeance; an avenger.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter viii. 3. Þat þou for-do Þe faa, þe wreker him vnto.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., IV. pr. iv. (1868), 128. Ne seek no foreyn wrekere [ed. 1560 wreckerie] out of þi self, for þou þi self hast þrest þe in to wicked þinges. Ibid. (c. 1381), Parl. Foules, 361. The stork the wrekere of a-vouterye.
a. 1400. Prymer (1891), 18. That thow destroye the enemy and the wrekere.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 201 b/2. This holy man was a grete wreker and auenger on hymself.
1513. Douglas, Æneid, VI. ix. 81. Tysyphone, the wrekar of misdedis.
1557. Phaër, Æneid., VI. (1558), S j. Brutus, mischief wreaker.
[1599. Thynne, Animadv. (1875), 68. The storke … ys a greater wreaker of the adulterye of his owne kynde.]
1887. Morris, Odyssey, XI. 280. For him she left indeed All woes that a mother’s wreakers to dreadful end may speed.
