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ruin
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
ruin
I.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
as good as dead/ruined/useless etc
▪ This carpet’s as good as ruined.
destroy/ruin sb’s reputation
▪ The accusation ruined her reputation and cost her the election.
lay in ruins
▪ The town now lay in ruins.
ruin any chance of sth (=make it impossible for something to happen)
▪ Drinking alcohol can ruin any chance of weight loss.
spoil/ruin the countryside
▪ Too many tourists can spoil the countryside.
spoil/ruin your appetite (=make you not feel like eating a meal)
▪ Don’t give the children any more sweets – it will spoil their appetite.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
completely
▪ Otherwise you may completely ruin your kitchen table or working surface!
▪ It's completely ruined the furniture.
▪ One June day, my sister was caught in a thunderstorm, and the deluge completely ruined her hat.
■ NOUN
business
▪ And has Phil forgotten his summer vow to ruin Ian's business?
▪ He lost a third time when Clark and Street sued him for ruining their ferry business.
▪ She could keep Judi out of it, but ruin a good few careers, businesses and marriages.
▪ He now claims federal agents ruined his business and reputation.
▪ Fakhru heard the remark, but said nothing; he preferred not to ruin a good business deal with petty religions differences.
career
▪ Any kind of sharp practice or dishonest dealing will infallibly ruin his career.
▪ He had been found guilty by inferred accusation, and this had ruined his career.
▪ Not sure I want to - it would ruin his career.
▪ If you insist, we shall rigidly enforce that provision, in the courts if necessary which would ruin your career once and for all.
▪ She could keep Judi out of it, but ruin a good few careers, businesses and marriages.
▪ They have ruined several people's careers and lives.
▪ They say the report has already damaged morale and could ruin their careers.
▪ Then they would move on to acquaintances who were ruining their careers doing television.
chance
▪ Despite the glossy packaging he ruined Labour's chances last time and he is set to repeat the disaster.
▪ And such imploding partnerships can ruin all chances for success for both the people involved.
▪ Dennis invariably ruined his own chances by his complete anti-establishment stance.
▪ I was ruining his chances of getting free from the chains of misery attaching him to a rotten banlieue de Paris.
▪ I feel that Piggy's lack of the understanding of human nature ruined the chance of democracy for the boys.
▪ An absent Lexandro could ruin this chance.
▪ She didn't in any way splash it across the newspapers because that ruined her sister's chances.
▪ The outbreak of World War I ruined all chance of its success, and he never quite recovered financially or professionally.
country
▪ The generals know they are ruining their country, but they do not dare relinquish power.
crop
▪ They did not ruin crops or attack living things.
▪ The toll includes drowned livestock, ruined wheat crops and boats torn from their moorings on rivers around the north state.
day
▪ The fog that had ruined their day yesterday was killing them that morning.
▪ What saves the day, then, is also what ruins the day: difference.
▪ A doubt like faraway thunder threatens to ruin the day, that it's squandered on this.
▪ Sometimes two syllables are enough to ruin your day.
▪ Of course some may say he ruined the day.
game
▪ The only thing that ruined the game for me was the time it took to load each room.
▪ The Matadors' shoddy spell in the second half ruined a good game.
▪ Did this man know that he had ruined our game, our happiness, everything we held dear?
▪ But the age of the fighters ruined the game for me.
health
▪ They took away his freedom, they broke his spirit, and they ruined his health.
▪ The trip ruined the health of Pere Marquette.
▪ I am worried that I may be ruining my health by not having enough variety in my diet.
▪ In stern parental terms he told Uncle Allen he would ruin his health by drinking coffee.
▪ When I think we risked our lives and ruined our health to come to this.
▪ Study after study contend they can ruin our health with their smoke.
▪ One slice of chocolate gateau is not going to ruin your health - but several slices a day may well do so.
▪ They invent a few rules that don't mean anything so that you can ruin your health trying to change them.
life
▪ But I shan't let him continue to ruin my life.
▪ Oddly, however, this incident did not ruin my life.
▪ She ruined her life and mine, and I've ruined mine and Camille's.
▪ The words had ruined a ruined life.
▪ People say having a baby ruins your life, and talk about what you could have done in a job and that.
▪ What a shame for such a nice-looking young man to be ruining his life with whiskey.
▪ It could ruin your entire life.
▪ This kid ruining his life at such an early age!
party
▪ Cazalbou's injury-time try came too late to ruin the party.
▪ Teenagers, drunk, disheveled, excited they ruined our party.
▪ He'd let them down disgracefully, ruining a dinner party that was given entirely for his benefit.
plan
▪ Hatred for the girl who had dared to talk to strangers, who had ruined his plan to get rid of Sikes.
▪ Mr Howie does not, but seems to have accepted that the criticism has ruined his board's plans.
▪ A confrontation now would ruin all my plans.
▪ In any case, now if ever was my chance to ruin Victor's plans.
reputation
▪ Their whim can make or ruin a reputation.
▪ Canceling the tour not only would bankrupt the club, Pascoe said, but also ruin its reputation.
▪ He has ruined Soon-Yi's reputation.
▪ He now claims federal agents ruined his business and reputation.
▪ But if the police handle things badly it could ruin my client's reputation and start a lot of unwelcome investigation.
▪ Yet far from ruining the reputation of Camilla, the claims seemed only to enhance her standing within royal circles.
road
▪ Collision He's making me out to be some sort of thick, brainless loony on a self-destruct road to ruin.
▪ This means that selfish competition, between employees as between corporations, is the road to ruin.
■ VERB
let
▪ I've worked too damned hard just to let everything be ruined because of unsavoury gossip.
▪ The archbishop of Toledo refused to let her premarital jitters ruin a useful alliance.
▪ But I shan't let him continue to ruin my life.
▪ We're not going to let our lives be ruined by other people's choices.
want
▪ She wants to ruin the play to which I have given all I possess.
▪ Lord Hanson will not want to ruin a fine track record by acting in haste.
▪ Do you want to ruin your beautiful suit?
▪ But young people now realise that certain buildings, for instance, are theirs and they don't want them ruined.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
go to rack and ruin
▪ He's let his father's old house go to rack and ruin.
▪ It seems that the government is prepared to let all our hospitals and schools go to rack and ruin.
▪ The old farmhouse had gone to rack and ruin.
▪ First they let the house go to rack and ruin, then the garden; now they were sheltering hippies.
▪ Yet the truth of it was that the estates were going to rack and ruin.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ A long strike would ruin the company.
▪ Alcohol and drugs almost ruined his career.
▪ Don't use harsh soap to wash your face. It will ruin your skin.
▪ How can you prevent stomach upsets from ruining your holiday?
▪ John and Sandy argued all the time, which completely ruined the evening for the rest of us.
▪ Many firms have been ruined by hasty decisions.
▪ Patty's ex-boyfriend is ruining our relationship.
▪ Phelps's mistake has ruined her chances of winning the championship.
▪ Protestors say that the proposed new airport will ruin this peaceful area.
▪ Serious in-fighting ruined the Conservatives' chances of winning the election.
▪ She is still angry with the suppliers, who she says ruined her by failing to deliver on time.
▪ Surely you don't want to ruin all our good work, do you?
▪ The incident has all but ruined her financially.
▪ The rain had ruined her best velvet skirt.
▪ The Zimmerman's house was ruined by the flood.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And if you are ruined, Mr Dollington, it will be by your own hand.
▪ But this would have ruined the entire tax system.
▪ I've seen a lot of good coppers ruined that way.
▪ I thought my career, my friendships and my whole life was ruined.
▪ In college he loved a young girl of a lower class and ruined her; she died a suicide.
▪ She almost hated them for ruining her life.
▪ The only thing that ruined the game for me was the time it took to load each room.
II.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
ancient
▪ A 16-track testimony to the everlasting worth of ancient ruins, excluding Charlie Watts.
▪ A visit to the ancient ruins, especially on a quiet weekday, comes close to a religious experience.
▪ Here we sit around the ancient ruins of a Stilton, eating and talking, drinking and smoking.
▪ Catacombs, churches, ancient ruins - all of it began blurring together.
financial
▪ Michael Joyce had not suffered financial ruin by his second emigration.
▪ A 35-year-old lawyer faces financial ruin resulting from a serious mental illness.
▪ Pleas that the couple and their two young children will be homeless and facing financial ruin have fallen on deaf ears.
▪ Much of the plains' cattle industry was in financial ruin.
▪ The small businesses facing financial ruin.
▪ Milk contaminated Scientists are stepping up tests to find the source of dioxin contamination which has brought financial ruin to two farmers.
▪ It would spell financial ruin and possibly the end.
▪ In this golden period Tank also sold Peron on nuclear ideas and brought even greater financial ruin as a result.
roman
▪ Explore the cathedral heritage centres, Roman ruins.
■ VERB
bring
▪ Milk contaminated Scientists are stepping up tests to find the source of dioxin contamination which has brought financial ruin to two farmers.
face
▪ David and wife Carol who run a food and tourism business say they face ruin over the pipeline plans.
▪ If he failed, he faced ruin.
▪ The growers appeared to be facing ruin until one bright spark hit on an idea.
▪ A 35-year-old lawyer faces financial ruin resulting from a serious mental illness.
▪ Pleas that the couple and their two young children will be homeless and facing financial ruin have fallen on deaf ears.
▪ The small businesses facing financial ruin.
▪ Meanwhile in San Diego, a society wife faces ruin when her millionaire husband is arrested as a suspected drug trafficker.
▪ But despite extra sales, many shopkeepers are facing ruin.
fall
▪ Miles of poverty with modern adobe dwellings either being built or falling into ruin.
▪ The wrong of her slighted beauty remained with her until Troy fell in ruins.
▪ Unemployment runs at more than 50 %, and most factories have fallen into ruin.
▪ Angered by this, she shook the mountain until the city of Skadar fell in ruins.
▪ In 1685 the castle was burnt by the Duke of Argyll and fell into ruin.
leave
▪ It was one of a number he had picked up since leaving the charred ruins of Ankh-Morpork.
▪ This time her house was left a complete ruin.
▪ The Temple Mount was left in ruins.
▪ In their wake, they leave not ruins but ruin.
▪ I won't be left in ruins.
▪ We have been left with the ruins of this word after it was applied to grog shops to make them seem respectable.
▪ Meanwhile, they spread to other countries; and everywhere they left behind them widespread ruin.
lie
▪ The centrepiece was a gradual revaluation of the lira against the dollar-a strategy which now lies in ruins.
▪ He thought the surrounding towns must lie in ruins now, too.
▪ It was to lie in ruins for another sixty-one years.
▪ I have said, and I say again, that Trantor will lie in ruins within the next five centuries.
▪ Elizabeth Jarvis said it was like St Paul's Cathedral, miraculously saved while all around it lay in ruins.
▪ When he was finished, Rampart Dam lay pretty much in ruins.
▪ Abingdon's trade had been waning for some time, with its fulling mills lying in ruins and unemployment rife by 1538.
▪ Today his dreams for a new society lie in ruin.
rack
▪ Yet the truth of it was that the estates were going to rack and ruin.
▪ First they let the house go to rack and ruin, then the garden; now they were sheltering hippies.
save
▪ Their abandoned Victorian mansion has been bought by the local council to save it from ruin.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
go to rack and ruin
▪ He's let his father's old house go to rack and ruin.
▪ It seems that the government is prepared to let all our hospitals and schools go to rack and ruin.
▪ The old farmhouse had gone to rack and ruin.
▪ First they let the house go to rack and ruin, then the garden; now they were sheltering hippies.
▪ Yet the truth of it was that the estates were going to rack and ruin.
reduce sth to ashes/rubble/ruins
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ an 800-year-old Mayan ruin
▪ financial ruin
▪ We visited the ruins of the old abbey.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ An exciting feature here is an underground passage leading to a cave deep beneath the ruins.
▪ But the other ruins are impressive, ample and accessible.
▪ Even in ruin the Colosseum is a magnificent edifice of great structural interest and aesthetic splendour.
▪ He'd seen movement in the ruin.
▪ In a thousand years, archaeologists will be digging through the ruins of what was once San Francisco.
▪ Maybe a ruin I can fix up.
▪ Sailors mobilized to search for survivors wandered through the ruins in a daze.
▪ There seemed to be so many of them, more and more crowding silently through the ruins wherever she looked.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ruin

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

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

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.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
ruin

late 14c., "act of giving way and falling down," from Old French ruine "a collapse" (14c.), and directly from Latin ruina "a collapse, a rushing down, a tumbling down" (source also of Spanish ruina, Italian rovina), related to ruere "to rush, fall violently, collapse," from PIE *reue- (2) "to smash, knock down, tear out, dig up" (see rough (adj.)). Meaning "complete destruction of anything" is from 1670s. Ruins "remains of a decayed building or town" is from mid-15c.; the same sense was in the Latin plural noun.

ruin

1580s (transitive), from ruin (n.). Intransitive sense "fall into ruin" is from c.1600. Financial sense is attested from 1660. Related: Ruined; ruining.

Wiktionary
ruin

n. (lb en countable sometimes in the plural) The remains of a destroyed or dilapidated construction, such as a house or castle. vb. 1 (context transitive English) to cause the ruin of. 2 To destroy or make something no longer usable. 3 To upset or mess up the plans or progress of, or to put into disarray; to spoil.

Related phrases:
WordNet
ruin

  1. n. an irrecoverable state of devastation and destruction; "you have brought ruin on this entire family" [syn: ruination]

  2. a ruined building; "they explored several Roman ruins"

  3. the process of becoming dilapidated [syn: dilapidation]

  4. an event that results in destruction [syn: ruination]

  5. failure that results in a loss of position or reputation [syn: downfall, ruination]

  6. destruction achieved by wrecking something [syn: laying waste, ruining, ruination, wrecking]

ruin

  1. v. destroy completely; damage irreparably; "You have ruined my car by pouring sugar in the tank!"; "The tears ruined her make-up" [syn: destroy]

  2. destroy or cause to fail; "This behavior will ruin your chances of winning the election"

  3. reduce to bankruptcy; "My daughter's fancy wedding is going to break me!"; "The slump in the financial markets smashed him" [syn: bankrupt, break, smash]

  4. reduce to ruins; "The country lay ruined after the war"

  5. deprive of virginity; "This dirty old man deflowered several young girls in the village" [syn: deflower]

  6. fall into ruin

Wikipedia
Ruin (publishing house)

Ruin is a Swedish publishing house, well known for high quality books, mostly translations from various languages. It was established in 1996 by Harald Hultqvist, Nils Håkanson, Carl Ehrenkrona, Jon Smedsaas and Staffan Vahlquist. Ruin has presented internationally acclaimed writers in Swedish translation, such as Varlam Shalamov, Yu Hua, Nancy Huston, Andrei Volos, Bohumil Hrabal, Yevgeny Zamyatin and Joseph Roth.

Ruin (album)

Ruin is the second studio album by British metalcore band Architects. This was the first album to feature vocalist Sam Carter and bassist Alex Dean.

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "ruin".

Yet how should he not go to Utterbol with the Damsel abiding deliverance of him there: and yet again, if they met there and were espied on, would not that ruin everything for her as well as for him?

The standards of Ishterebinth, last of the Nonmen Mansions, charged deep into a sea of abominations, leaving black-blooded ruin in their wake.

Archimages have included shielding aborigines who were in danger of being exterminated by hostile humans, and collecting and disposing of dangerous or inappropriate artifacts of the Vanished Ones that turned up in the ancient ruined cities.

When the king heard what had happened he ordered the worthy actress to leave Madrid, to prevent the duke ruining himself.

Then, outside, the addressograph began to thump again, and he had to force himself not to ruin the lines as his body tried to flinch.

I dare to make a suggestion, I would say you are adopting the best possible way to ruin yourself.

He devoted all his great energies to the advancement of the welfare of his countrymen while shrinking from public notice, and sought to lay deep and strong the foundations of government which it was supposed would rise from the ruins of the old.

Most of the blood still had not returned to his brain, he had been enjoying the afterglow of one of the most erotic, sensual interludes in his life, and this impossible woman had to pick a fight with him, ruining the moment.

Germany, under certain capitulations, obliging the prince thus chosen to govern according to law, would become an hereditary succession, perpetuated in one family, which of course must be aggrandized to the prejudice of its co-estates, and the ruin of the Germanic liberties.

The most wealthy families ruined by partial fines and confiscations, and the great body of his subjects oppressed by ingenious and aggravated taxes.

But when his pure and proper divinity had been established on the ruins of Arianism, the faith of the Catholics trembled on the edge of a precipice where it was impossible to recede, dangerous to stand, dreadful to fall and the manifold inconveniences of their creed were aggravated by the sublime character of their theology.

The ruins of the Agora had saddened him, but this new Athens was a cacophony of color and sound that surpassed imagination.

The old British fort at Akasha, relic of the Gordon relief expedition, was in ruins.

Conyngham had been in Toledo before, and knew his way to the inn under the shadow of the great Alcazar, now burnt and ruined.

Shielding his light, Alec crossed back to the ruined wall while Seregil remained in the shadows near the door.