Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Having been ruined.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To hurl violently down; thrust or drive headlong.
- To bring to ruin; overthrow; undo.
- To fall; be overthrown; go to ruin.
- Brought to ruin; ruined; in ruins.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb obsolete To fall; to tumble.
- transitive verb To demolish; to subvert; to destroy; to reduce to poverty; to ruin.
- transitive verb To cause to fall; to cast down.
- adjective Involved in ruin; ruined.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To reduce to
ruins ; todestroy .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word ruinate.
Examples
-
SENIOR Jamaica 55 In three or four years after the ruinate is cleared up, the pimento begins to bear.
-
Our classification for the moist forests of Jamaica are based on conglomerations of the following moist forest types/formations according to Grossman et al and Brown and Heinman: limestone forest and ruinate, virgin forest, mist forest, and elfin woodland, and wet forest fringes and related river valleys.
-
And thus striving for more honour to their wealth, they undo their children, many discontents follow, and oftentimes they ruinate their families.
-
Many are carried away with those bewitching sports of gaming, hawking, hunting, and such vain pleasures, as [4526] I have said: some with immoderate desire of fame, to be crowned in the Olympics, knighted in the field, &c., and by these means ruinate themselves.
-
Edinburgh, with the exception of the Castle, was "utterly ruinate and destroyed with fire," during the space of four successive days; "Also, we brent th'abbey called Holy Rode-house, and the Pallice adjonynge to the same."
The Works of John Knox, Vol. 1 (of 6) John Knox
-
Only his baggified breeches would ruinate anyone's seat --
-
The accusation of a man on hearsay is nothing: would he accuse himself on passion and ruinate his case and posterity out of malice to accuse you?
State Trials, Political and Social Volume 1 (of 2) Harry Lushington Stephen 1902
-
The house, save for the actual fabric of it, had become rather dilapidated and ruinate.
The History of Sir Richard Calmady A Romance Lucas Malet 1891
-
Or, morebetoken, how can we tell what quare ugly misfortin thim that's took is took out of the road of, that we should be as good as biddin 'thim stay till it comes to ruinate them?
Strangers at Lisconnel Jane Barlow 1887
-
It was pitiful to think how, as the result of the holy sacrament of wedlock, which is instituted among men for their glory and eternal salvation, the fairest lady of Verona was bedded with so old a man, all ruinate in health and vigour.
The Well of Saint Clare Anatole France 1884
mollusque commented on the word ruinate
Jamaican term for herbaceous, scrubby and woody areas arising on forest land that humans have cleared and abandoned; a type of secondary forest.
November 19, 2007