UNDOING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Undoing

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/əndˈuɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Undo v. t. (past undid; past part. undone; pres. part. undoing)

1.

To reverse, as what has been done; to annul; to bring to naught. "What's done can not be undone." "To-morrow, ere the setting sun, She 'd all undo that she had done."

2.

To loose; to open; to take to piece; to unfasten; to untie; hence, to unravel; to solve; as, to undo a knot; to undo a puzzling question; to undo a riddle. "Pray you, undo this button." "She took the spindle, and undoing the thread gradually, measured it."

3.

To bring to poverty; to impoverish; to ruin, as in reputation, morals, hopes, or the like; as, many are undone by unavoidable losses, but more undo themselves by vices and dissipation, or by indolence. "That quaffing and drinking will undo you,"

noun

Undoing n.

1.

The reversal of what has been done.

2.

Ruin. "The utter undoing of some."

See images of 'Undoing'

Etymology of 'Undoing'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Undoing" Quotes from Famous Books

... "your venomous bile pollutes the crystal flood of my narration. Did I ride? That was the undoing of the sage. When he recovered consciousness for the second time, it was to discover that the chain was missing and that the back tire was windless. In my endeavours to find the chain I lost myself. That reminds me. I must put an advertisement in The Times to the effect ...

— Berry And Co. • Dornford Yates

... an hour Thorn stood there before something happened that at once helped him, and, at the same time, nearly proved his undoing. ...

— The Radiant Shell • Paul Ernst

... other Self-flatteries, all vain and indiscreet, took up her waking Nights, and now more retired Days; while Love, to make her truly wretched, suffered her to sooth herself with fond Imaginations; not so much as permitting her Reason to plead one Moment to save her from undoing: She would not suffer it to tell her, he had taken Holy Orders, made sacred and solemn Vows of everlasting Chastity, that it was impossible he could marry her, or lay before her any Argument that might prevent her Ruin; but Love, mad malicious Love, ...

— The Works of Aphra Behn - Volume V • Aphra Behn

... that day that hitherto he had seen and heard nothing. Such a tornado of shells burst around him that it was like hell let loose. Hour after hour the Germans bombarded our trenches, tearing great holes in the ground, and undoing the work of months. It seemed to Tom that ...

— Tommy • Joseph Hocking

... dear, Though from our open eyes 'tis hidden. Thou, Time-to-come, shalt make it clear, Undoing our work; we are children chidden With pity and smiles of many ...

— Poems • Alice Meynell

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