[f. WRECK v.1 + -AGE 3.]
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. Doyle, Duet (1909), 119/2. 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.
