wrecker

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: wreck=er

CIDE DICTIONARY

wrecker, n. 

•  One who causes a wreck, as by false lights, and the like.  [1913 Webster]
•  One who searches fro, or works upon, the wrecks of vessels, etc. Specifically: (a) One who visits a wreck for the purpose of plunder. (b) One who is employed in saving property or lives from a wrecked vessel, or in saving the vessel; as, the wreckers of Key West.  [1913 Webster]
•  A vessel employed by wreckers.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

wrecker, n.
1 a person or thing that wrecks or destroys.
2 esp. hist. a person on the shore who tries to bring about a shipwreck in order to plunder or profit by the wreckage.
3 esp. US a person employed in demolition, or in recovering a wrecked ship or its contents.
4 US a person who breaks up damaged vehicles for spares and scrap.
5 US a vehicle or train used in recovering a damaged one.

THESAURUS

wrecker

animal, annihilator, anthropophagite, arsonist, barbarian, beast, biblioclast, bomber, brute, burner, cannibal, demolisher, depredator, despoiler, destroyer, dynamitard, dynamiter, exterminator, forager, forayer, freebooter, hun, hyena, iconoclast, idol breaker, idoloclast, looter, man-eater, marauder, nihilist, pillager, plunderer, raider, rapparee, ravager, ravisher, reiver, rifler, ruiner, sacker, savage, shark, spoiler, spoliator, syndicalist, terrorist, tiger, vandal, wild man

ROGET THESAURUS

wrecker

Thief

N thief, robber, homo triumliterarum, pilferer, rifler, filcher, plagiarist, spoiler, depredator, pillager, marauder, harpy, shark, land shark, falcon, mosstrooper, bushranger, Bedouin, brigand, freebooter, bandit, thug, dacoit, pirate, corsair, viking, Paul Jones, buccaneer, buccanier, piqueerer, pickeerer, rover, ranger, privateer, filibuster, rapparee, wrecker, picaroon, smuggler, poacher, abductor, badger, bunko man, cattle thief, chor, contrabandist, crook, hawk, holdup man, hold-up, jackleg, kidnaper, rustler, cattle rustler, sandbagger, sea king, skin, sneak thief, spieler, strong-arm man, highwayman, Dick Turpin, Claude Duval, Macheath, footpad, sturdy beggar, cut purse, pick purse, pickpocket, light-fingered gentry, sharper, card sharper, skittle sharper, thimblerigger, rook, Greek, blackleg, leg, welsher, defaulter, Autolycus, Jeremy Diddler, Robert Macaire, artful dodger, trickster, swell mob, chevalier d'industrie, shoplifter, swindler, peculator, forger, coiner, fence, receiver of stolen goods, duffer, smasher, burglar, housebreaker, cracksman, magsman, Bill Sikes, Jack Sheppard, Jonathan Wild, gang, gang of thieves, theft ring, organized crime, mafia, the Sicilian Mafia, the mob, la cosa nostra, Dillinger, Al Capone, Robin Hood.