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The meaning of WREAK HAVOC is to cause great damage. How to use wreak havoc in a sentence.
To wreak havoc is to cause chaos or destruction or both. Wreak means to inflict or cause. Havoc means chaos, disorder, or confusion. It can also mean destruction, damage, or ruin. In many cases, it refers to a combination of these things.
So to wreak havoc on something means "to inflict or cause devastating damage." Wreak and havoc are almost always paired in contemporary English, but in 19th-century books you'll see much wreaking of ruin, toil, scorn, and other unpleasant things.
Something or someone that wreaks havoc or destruction causes a great amount of disorder or damage. [...] [journalism, literary] See full entry for 'wreak' Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers. COBUILD Collocations. wreak havoc. economic havoc. further havoc.
The verb wreak usually means “bring about, cause” (although it can also mean “to avenge” and “to give free play or course to malevolent feeling”), and this word, rather than wreck, is the one that is most often paired with havoc.
wreak havoc. Create confusion and inflict destruction. Havoc, which comes from the medieval word for “plunder,” was once a specific command for invading troops to begin looting and killing in a conquered village.
wreak havoc. Create confusion and inflict destruction. Havoc, which comes from the medieval word for “plunder,” was once a specific command for invading troops to begin looting and killing in a conquered village.
