verb, noun
verb [VN]
1 to damage sth so badly that it loses all its value, pleasure, etc.; to spoil sth:
The bad weather ruined our trip. * That one mistake ruined his chances of getting the job. * My new shoes got ruined in the mud. * The crops were ruined by the late frost.
2 to make sb/sth lose all their money, their position, etc:
If she loses the court case it will ruin her. * The country was ruined by the war.
Part of speech: noun
1 [U] the state or process of being destroyed or severely damaged:
A large number of churches fell into ruin after the revolution. * The house had been left to go to ruin. * The terrorist attack had left the city in a state of ruin
2 [U] the fact of having no money, of having lost your job, position, etc:
The divorce ultimately led to his ruin. * The bank stepped in to save the company from financial ruin. * The war brought the country to the brink of ruin.
3 [sing.] something that causes a person, company, etc. to lose all their money, job, position, etc:
Gambling was his ruin.
4 [C] (also ruins [pl.]) the parts of a building that remain after it has been destroyed or severely damaged:
The old mill is now little more than a ruin. * We visited the ruins of a Norman castle. * Two bodies were found among the charred ruins of the house. * (figurative) He was determined to build a new life out of the ruins of his career.
IDIOMS
in ruins destroyed or severely damaged:
Years of fighting have left the area in ruins. * The scandal left his reputation in ruins. * Their plans for a comeback now lie in ruins.
moreatRACKn.
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for ruin is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is ruin a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, ruin is tagged as noun.
Does ruin appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — ruin appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.