ruinate
Americanverb (used with object)
adjective
Etymology
Origin of ruinate
1530–40; < Medieval Latin ruīnātus, past participle of ruīnāre. See ruin, -ate 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The house, save for the actual fabric of it, had become rather dilapidated and ruinate.
From The History of Sir Richard Calmady A Romance by Lucas Malet
H. Alas, for woe! alack, that so great state The malice of this world should ruinate!
From A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 8 by William Carew Hazlitt
Or do I ruinate mine honor, because I leave following the pursuit, or wearing the false badge or mark of the shadow of honor?
From The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part D. From Elizabeth to James I. by David Hume
And though your frames do for a time make warre Gainst Time, yet Time in time shall ruinate Your workes and names, and your last reliques marre.
From The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume 5 by Edmund Spenser
Time ill-consum'd to ruinate our house; But what are they that keep him company?
From A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 9 by Various
Here again are such stately nouns as provender and ablutions, adverbs like anew and perchance, adjectives like ruinated or commonsensical, once invaluable conjunctives like albeit.
From Time Magazine Archive
Why, if my customers were to hear you, the character of my house might be ruinated.
From The Knight of the Golden Melice A Historical Romance by John Turvill Adams
I'm ruinated for a fact; I might as well be in hell as in Maryland.'
From Duffels by Edward Eggleston
A second and quite unpretentious gateway admitted them to a green meadow, in shape a rough semicircle, enclosed by ruinated walls.
From Brother Copas by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
I hope I may be teetotally ruinated, if I'd take eight hundred dollars for him.
From The Clockmaker Or, the Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick, of Slickville by Thomas Chandler Haliburton
“You have seen enough of the fishes for one morrow,” returned Barbara relentlessly; “and if the fishes could see you, they should cry shame upon you for ruinating of your raiment by the damp grass.”
From Clare Avery A Story of the Spanish Armada by Emily Sarah Holt
And here's Mrs. Cruncher, or leastways wos in the Old England times, and would be to-morrow, if cause given, a floppin' again the business to that degree as is ruinating—stark ruinating!
From A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
