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Ruin   /rˈuən/  /rˈuɪn/   Listen
noun
Ruin  n.  
1.
The act of falling or tumbling down; fall. (Obs.) "His ruin startled the other steeds."
2.
Such a change of anything as destroys it, or entirely defeats its object, or unfits it for use; destruction; overthrow; as, the ruin of a ship or an army; the ruin of a constitution or a government; the ruin of health or hopes. "Ruin seize thee, ruthless king!"
3.
That which is fallen down and become worthless from injury or decay; as, his mind is a ruin; especially, in the plural, the remains of a destroyed, dilapidated, or desolate house, fortress, city, or the like. "The Veian and the Gabian towers shall fall, And one promiscuous ruin cover all; Nor, after length of years, a stone betray The place where once the very ruins lay." "The labor of a day will not build up a virtuous habit on the ruins of an old and vicious character."
4.
The state of being dcayed, or of having become ruined or worthless; as, to be in ruins; to go to ruin.
5.
That which promotes injury, decay, or destruction. "The errors of young men are the ruin of business."
Synonyms: Destruction; downfall; perdition; fall; overthrow; subversion; defeat; bane; pest; mischief.


verb
Ruin  v. t.  (past & past part. ruined;pres. part. ruining)  To bring to ruin; to cause to fall to pieces and decay; to make to perish; to bring to destruction; to bring to poverty or bankruptcy; to impair seriously; to damage essentially; to overthrow. "this mortal house I'll ruin." "By thee raised, I ruin all my foes." "The eyes of other people are the eyes that ruin us." "By the fireside there are old men seated, Seeling ruined cities in the ashes."


Ruin  v. i.  To fall to ruins; to go to ruin; to become decayed or dilapidated; to perish. (R.) "Though he his house of polished marble build, Yet shall it ruin like the moth's frail cell." "If we are idle, and disturb the industrious in their business, we shall ruin the faster."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Ruin" Quotes from Famous Books



... "You will not think of doing such a desperate thing, which might ruin your whole life, when I have promised you that there is ...
— By the Light of the Soul - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
... with his great bull-headed English obstinacy, saw the facheuse position into which he had brought his troops, he was for dying on the spot, and would infallibly have done so—and the loss of his army would have been the ruin of the East India Company—and the ruin of the English East India Company would have established my empire (bah! it was a republic then!) in the East—but that the man before us, Lieutenant Goliah Gahagan, was riding at the side of ...
— Burlesques • William Makepeace Thackeray
... deadly, and killing rule of no rule; the consecration of cupidity and braying of folly, and dim stupidity and baseness, in most of the affairs of men. Slop-shirts attainable three-half-pence cheaper by the ruin of ...
— Pearls of Thought • Maturin M. Ballou
... Egypt's great host in battle-ray forth brought, The Caliph sends with Godfrey's power to fight; Armida, who Rinaldo's ruin sought, To them adjoins herself and Syria's might. To satisfy her cruel will and thought, She gives herself to him that kills her knight: He takes his fatal arms, and in his shield His ancestors and their ...
— Jerusalem Delivered • Torquato Tasso
... signed by names unknown to her. They all related to race-horses, and to cunningly devised bets which were certain to make the fortunes of the clever gamblers on the turf who laid them. Absolute indifference on the part of the winners to the ruin of the losers, who were not in the secret, was the one feeling in common, which her father's correspondents presented. In mercy to his memory she threw the letters into the empty fireplace, and destroyed ...
— The Evil Genius • Wilkie Collins


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