wreck·er / ˈrekər/ • n. 1. a person or thing that wrecks, damages, or destroys something: [in comb.] she was cast as a home-wrecker. ∎  a person who breaks up damaged vehicles, demolishes old buildings, salvages wrecked ships, etc., to obtain usable spares or scrap. ∎  chiefly hist. a person on the shore who tries to bring about a shipwreck in order to profit from the wreckage.2. a tow truck.

wrecker a person on the shore who tried to bring about a shipwreck in order to plunder or profit from the wreckage; the term is first recorded in Washington Irving's Sketch Book (1820) in a reference to a crowd watching a shipwreck.