crash vs wreck

crash

verb
  • To severely damage or destroy something by causing it to collide with something else. 

  • To hit or strike with force 

  • To make or experience informal temporary living arrangements, especially overnight. 

  • To lie down for a long rest, sleep or nap, as from tiredness or exhaustion. 

  • To give, as a favor. 

  • To accelerate a project or a task or its schedule by devoting more resources to it. 

  • To collide with something destructively, fall or come down violently. 

  • To terminate extraordinarily. 

  • To cause to terminate extraordinarily. 

  • To experience a period of depression and/or lethargy after a period of euphoria, as after the euphoric effect of a psychotropic drug has dissipated. 

  • To make a sudden loud noise. 

  • To take a sudden and severe turn for the worse; to rapidly deteriorate. 

noun
  • A type of rough linen. 

  • A sudden, intense, loud sound, as made for example by cymbals. 

  • A group of rhinoceroses. 

  • An automobile, airplane, or other vehicle accident. 

  • A sudden large decline of business or the prices of stocks (especially one that causes additional failures). 

  • A sudden decline in any living form's population levels, often leading to extinction. 

  • A malfunction of computer software or hardware which causes it to shut down or become partially or totally inoperable. 

  • A comedown from a drug. 

adj
  • Quick, fast, intensive, impromptu. 

wreck

verb
  • To destroy violently; to cause severe damage to something, to a point where it no longer works, or is useless. 

  • To involve in a wreck; hence, to cause to suffer ruin; to balk of success, and bring disaster on. 

  • To dismantle wrecked vehicles or other objects, to reclaim any useful parts. 

  • To be involved in a wreck; to be damaged or destroyed. 

  • To ruin or dilapidate. 

noun
  • A large number of birds that have been brought to the ground, injured or dead, by extremely adverse weather. 

  • Something or someone that has been ruined. 

  • The remains of something that has been severely damaged or worn down. 

  • A shipwreck: an event in which a ship is heavily damaged or destroyed. 

  • Goods, etc. cast ashore by the sea after a shipwreck. 

  • An event in which something is damaged through collision. 

How often have the words crash and wreck occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )