noun fig.: destruction; ruin; irretrievable loss.
2. shipwreck ·noun a ship wrecked or destroyed upon the water, or the parts of such a ship; wreckage.
3. shipwreck ·vt to destroy, as a ship at sea, by running ashore or on rocks or sandbanks, or by the force of wind and waves in a tempest.
4. shipwreck ·noun the breaking in pieces, or shattering, of a ship or other vessel by being cast ashore or driven against rocks, shoals, ·etc., by the violence of the winds and waves.
5. shipwreck ·vt to cause to experience shipwreck, as sailors or passengers. hence, to cause to suffer some disaster or loss; to destroy or ruin, as if by shipwreck; to wreck; as, to shipwreck a business.