wreak
Pronunciation: /riːk/
verb
- cause (a large amount of damage or harm): torrential rainstorms wreaked havoc yesterday the environmental damage wreaked by ninety years of phosphate mining
- inflict (vengeance): he was determined to wreak his revenge on the girl who had rejected him
- archaic avenge (someone who has been wronged): grant me some knight to wreak me for my son
In the phrase wrought havoc, as in they wrought havoc on the countryside, wrought is an archaic past tense of work and is not, as is sometimes assumed, a past tense of wreak.