RUIN • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Ruin

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/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."

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Etymology of 'Ruin'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ruin" Quotes from Famous Books

... dictates manifested in the Catholic religion?" When she said that word "together" that had been his thought. Now, as he looked at the two tents, a white light seemed to fall upon Domini's character, and in this white light stood the ruin and the house that was founded upon a rock. He was torn by conflicting sensations of despair and triumph. She was what he had believed. That made the triumph. But since she was that where was his future with her? The monk and the man who had fled from the monastery stood up within him to do ...

— The Garden Of Allah • Robert Hichens

... quadrupeds, and Theobald is a cipher; and Lady B. has little more than the few ideas which she gets sent over with her dresses from Paris. I know it is mauvais ton to cry them down—but I cannot help it. My sincerity will ruin me some ...

— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 19, - Issue 553, June 23, 1832 • Various

... to treat their new discoveries and conquests more seriously. To have held the country at all, they must have held it well. It would not have been Ovandos, Bobadillas, Nicuesas and Ojedas who could have been employed to govern, discover, conquer, colonize—and ruin by their folly—the Spanish possessions in the Indies. The work of discovery and conquest, begun by Columbus, must then have been entrusted to men like Cortes, the Pizarros, Vasco Nunez, or the President Gasca; and a colony or a kingdom founded by any of these men might well have ...

— The Life of Columbus • Arthur Helps

... Her conduct had been perfectly correct, As she had seen nought claiming its expansion. A wavering spirit may be easier wreck'd, Because 't is frailer, doubtless, than a stanch one; But when the latter works its own undoing, Its inner crash is like an earthquake's ruin. ...

— Don Juan • Lord Byron

... time when the Romans would abandon Britain, and leave it to the mercy of the savages of the north and of the pirates of North Germany and Scandinavia, he would have seen that the extinction of the martial qualities of the British would lead to their ruin; but that Rome would decay and fall to pieces and become the prey of barbarians, was a contingency beyond human ken, and he and those who worked with him thought that the greatest blessing they could bestow upon their country was to render it a contented ...

— Beric the Briton - A Story of the Roman Invasion • G. A. Henty

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