1. The action or process of wrecking; the fact of being wrecked. Also fig.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. V. ii. Wreckage and dissolution are the appointed issue for both [sc. wisdom and folly].
1890. Gasquet & Bishop, Edw. VI. & Bk. Com. Prayer, 272. A lively picture of the wreckage of ecclesiastical structures at that time [1548–9].
1899. Mackail, Life Morris, II. 291. There had been much wreckage of unverified beliefs and extravagant hopes.
2. Fragments or remains of a shattered or wrecked vessel; wreck.
1846. Worcester (citing Times).
1867. Morn. Star, 4 Feb. A large quantity of timber, ship’s spars, &c…. The wreckage appeared to be that of a large ship.
1885. T. P. Battersby, Elf Island, ii. 35–6. The deck was lit up by a few sickly lanterns, and was covered with wreckage from the broken mast.
1899. Conan Doyle, Duet, 302. Some of the wreckage from those vanished vessels.
attrib. 1898. Meredith, Odes Fr. Hist., 23. His wreckage-spars, His harried ships.
b. pl. Pieces or fragments of wreck. rare.
1864. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., XVII. vii. A bolt shot into the storm-tost Sea and its wreckages.
3. Material of or from a wrecked or shattered structure; a ruined fabric, building, etc.
1874. J. Geikie, Gt. Ice Age, xvi. 208. The ice-current … would leave upon their frozen shores the wreckage of the distant mountains.
1891. Baring-Gould, In Troubadour-Land, viii. 112. They form the wreckage of a palace for princes.
1894. Conan Doyle, Mem. Sherlock Holmes, 103. I never looked at his pale, keen face, or the poise of his head without associating him with grey archways and mullioned windows and all the venerable wreckage of a feudal keep.
b. fig. Persons whose lives have been wrecked, who have failed to maintain a position in society.
1883. F. Peek (title), Social Wreckage; a Review of the Laws of England as they affect the Poor.
1888. Pall Mall Gaz., 26 Nov., 6/1. Twenty beds … are nightly filled by wreckage, more or less battered, from the stress of life.
1898. Daily News, 18 April, 5/1. What a line of flotsam and jetsam it is!… that mass of human wreckage.
