nerve-wreck
noun1
Alternative Alternative form of nerve rack.
- It stands not far under these circumstances from the lunatic asylum and leaves a memory of nerve-wreck, or even of cowardice, which does not minister to self-respect.1908, The Lancet, page 410:
- The result as we saw it was a terrible one, and we could fancy the nerve-wreck of Charles Baudelaire, before the bow snapped, from the ravaged picture before us.1920, Martin Birnbaum, Oscar Wilde: Fragments and Memories, page 15:
1 more example
- Plunging deep in trauma and nerve-wreck after surviving a Nazi' shelling in one of the felled London streets.2003, Achife Francis, The Priest: Nil, →ISBN, page 1:
2
A person who is debilitated by stress.
- Behold the triumph of hypnotic mystification by the might of which the vacuous become profound and the flabby-willed nerve-wreck a heroine of dauntless faith!1911, The Literary Digest - Volume 42, page 684:
- It wouldn't happen again, for not one in a hundred of your Squadron-Leaders is a nerve-wreck.1978, Harford Montgomery Hyde, Solitary in the ranks: Lawrence of Arabia as airman and private soldier:
1 more example
- He was a nerve-wreck.1979, Anwar Sadat, Raphael Israeli, The public diary of President Sadat - Volume 3, →ISBN, page 1041: