- present participle of undo.
undoing
Americannoun
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undoings
plural
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the reversing of what has been done; annulling.
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a bringing to destruction, ruin, or disaster.
-
a cause of destruction or ruin.
-
the act of unfastening or loosing.
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Psychiatry. an unconscious defense mechanism through which an attempt is made to reverse a psychologically unacceptable act by doing its opposite, usually repetitiously, in order to relieve anxiety.
noun
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ruin; downfall
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the cause of downfall
drink was his undoing
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of undoing
Middle English word dating back to 1300–50; see origin at undo, -ing 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:
Just over two weeks after its release, Stone’s undoing has racked up more than 1.6 million pageviews.
From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2026
The appellate panel voiced serious doubts about undoing the consent decree at oral arguments in June.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
Rogers’s undoing began with a string of emails and an alarming realization: He was being blackmailed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
"This is literally a matter of life and death, and risks undoing years of hard-won progress," he said.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
He sat on the toilet without taking down his pants although he made noises like undoing his belt and unfastening his zipper.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
The bills follow other subtle undoings that opponents have linked to prioritizing energy over conservation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2018
Worldly doings and undoings on and around a posh golf course.
From Time Magazine Archive
One of the production's inspired touches is to punctuate the private doings and undoings of the characters with snatches of contemporaneous news footage.
From Time Magazine Archive
This novel ends where Shakespeare's Hamlet begins--after Act I, Scene 2, to be precise--and fills in the story of what the dramatis personae might have been up to before their tragic undoings at Elsinore.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the stress of recent doings and undoings, he had forgotten the spectacular beauty of this particular young lady of to-day.
From Lonesome Town by Ethel Dorrance
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.
