ruin definition | Dictionary.com

ru⋅in

[roo-in]

–noun

1.	ruins, the remains of a building, city, etc., that has been destroyed or that is in disrepair or a state of decay: We visited the ruins of ancient Greece.

2.	a destroyed or decayed building, town, etc.

3.	a fallen, wrecked, or decayed condition: The building fell to ruin.

4.	the downfall, decay, or destruction of anything.

5.	the complete loss of health, means, position, hope, or the like.

6.	something that causes a downfall or destruction; blight: Alcohol was his ruin.

7.	the downfall of a person; undoing: the ruin of Oedipus.

8.	a person as the wreck of his or her former self; ravaged individual.

9.	the act of causing destruction or a downfall.

–verb (used with object)

10.	to reduce to ruin; devastate.

11.	to bring (a person, company, etc.) to financial ruin; bankrupt.

12.	to injure (a thing) irretrievably.

13.	to induce (a woman) to surrender her virginity; deflower.

–verb (used without object)

14.	to fall into ruins; fall to pieces.

15.	to come to ruin.

Origin:
1325–75; (n.) ME ruine < MF < L ruīna headlong rush, fall, collapse, equiv. to ru(ere) to fall + -īna -ine ² ; (v.) (< MF ruiner) < ML ruīnāre, deriv. of L ruīna

Related forms:

ru⋅in⋅a⋅ble, adjective

ru⋅in⋅er, noun

Synonyms:
3. Ruin, destruction, havoc imply irrevocable and often widespread damage. Destruction may be on a large or small scale (destruction of tissue, of enemy vessels); it emphasizes particularly the act of destroying, while ruin and havoc emphasize the resultant state. Ruin, from the verb meaning to fall to pieces, suggests a state of decay or disintegration (or an object in that state) that is apt to be more the result of the natural processes of time and change than of sudden violent activity from without: The house has fallen to ruins. Only in its figurative application is it apt to suggest the result of destruction from without: the ruin of her hopes. Havoc, originally a cry that served as the signal for pillaging, has changed its reference from that of spoliation to devastation, being used particularly of the destruction following in the wake of natural calamities: the havoc wrought by flood and pestilence. Today it is used figuratively to refer to the destruction of hopes and plans: This sudden turn of events played havoc with her carefully laid designs. 4. fall, overthrow, defeat, wreck. 10. demolish, destroy, damage. See spoil.

Antonyms:
4. construction, creation.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source

Link To ruin

ru·in (rōō'ĭn)

Total destruction or disintegration, either physical, moral, social, or economic.
A cause of total destruction.
1. The act of destroying totally.
2. A destroyed person, object, or building.
The remains of something destroyed, disintegrated, or decayed. Often used in the plural: studied the ruins of ancient Greece.

v. ru·ined, ru·in·ing, ru·ins

v. tr.

To destroy completely; demolish.
To harm irreparably.
To reduce to poverty or bankruptcy.
To deprive of chastity.

v. intr.
To fall into ruin.

[Middle English ruine, from Old French, from Latin ruīna, from ruere, to rush, collapse.]
ru'in·a·ble adj., ru'in·er n.

Synonyms: These verbs mean to injure and deprive something—or, less often, someone—of usefulness, soundness, or value. Ruin usually implies irretrievable harm but not necessarily total destruction: "You will ruin no more lives as you ruined mine" (Arthur Conan Doyle).
Raze, demolish, and destroy can all imply reduction to ruins or even complete obliteration: "raze what was left of the city from the surface of the earth" (John Lothrop Motley). The prosecutor demolished the opposition's argument. "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness" (Allen Ginsberg).
To wreck is to ruin in or as if in a violent collision: "The Boers had just wrecked a British military train" (Arnold Bennett).
When wreck is used in referring to the ruination of a person or his or her hopes or reputation, it implies irreparable shattering: "Coleridge, poet and philosopher wrecked in a mist of opium" (Matthew Arnold).

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

Ruin

Ru"in\, n. [OE. ruine, F. ruine, fr. L. ruina, fr. ruere, rutum, to fall with violence, to rush or tumble down.]

1. The act of falling or tumbling down; fall. [Obs.] "His ruin startled the other steeds." --Chapman.

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!" --Gray.

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. --Addison.

The labor of a day will not build up a virtuous habit on the ruins of an old and vicious character. --Buckminster.

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. --Bacon.

Syn: Destruction; downfall; perdition; fall; overthrow; subversion; defeat; bane; pest; mischief.

Ruin

Ru"in\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Ruined;p. pr. & vb. n. Ruining.] [Cf. F. ruiner, LL. ruinare. See Ruin, n.] 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. --Shak.

By thee raised, I ruin all my foes. --Milton.

The eyes of other people are the eyes that ruin us. --Franklin.

By the fireside there are old men seated, Seeling ruined cities in the ashes. --Longfellow.

Ruin

Ru"in\, 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. --Sandys.

If we are idle, and disturb the industrious in their business, we shall ruin the faster. --Locke.

Language Translation for : ruin

Spanish: ruina,

German: die Ruine,

Japanese: 廃虚

More Translations »

ruin (n.)

c.1375, "act of giving way and falling down," from O.Fr. ruine, from L. ruina "a collapse" (cf. Sp. ruina, It. rovina), related to ruere "to rush, fall violently, collapse," of unknown origin. Meaning "complete destruction of anything" is from 1673. The verb is first recorded 1581, from the noun; financial sense is attested from 1660. Ruins "remains of a decayed building or town" is from 1454.

ruin

see rack and ruin.

Search another word or see ruin on Thesaurus | Reference

About · Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Advertise with Us · Link to Us · NASCAR® · Contact Us