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Green’s Dictionary of Slang

nervous wreck n.

also I’m a wreck, total wreck

[rhy. sl.]

a cheque.

1943		Piqua Dly Call (OH) 22 Apr. 4/8: To continue our Aussie Double-Talk list [...] Total wreck: a cheque.
1944		Maurer & Baker ‘“Aus.” Rhyming Argot’ in AS XIX:3 195/2: Total Wreck. A check.
1950		West. Australian (Perth) 11 Mar. 22/6: If a man asks [...] his boss for a total wreck when he means a cheaue, he probably gets a blank look.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS 648/1: I’m a wreck – cheque.
1972		Dodson & Saczek Dict. of Cockney Rhy. Sl. 39: total wreck. Cheque.
1981		P. Wright Cockney Dialect and Sl. 104: total wreck ‘cheque’.
1998		R. Puxley Fresh Rabbit.
2002		B. Kirkpatrick Wicked Cockney Rhy. Sl. 53: nervous wreck cheque.