ruin
part of speech
verb (ruin, ruins, ruined, ruining); noun (a ruin, ruins; in ruins)
meaning for a pupil
1) To ruin something means to damage or spoil it so badly that it is no good any more: rain ruined the picnic. tree →
2) A ruin is what is left of an old building that has fallen down, or the ruins of a town. tree →
3) Ruin can mean losing all your money: the business faced ruin. tree →
sense in the lessons
In history lessons, pupils visit or study ruins — old castles, abbeys, Roman forts — to learn how people lived. In everyday life, «ruin» is used when plans or things are spoilt: muddy shoes ruin the carpet, one spoiler ruins the film. In stories it shows disaster. Phrases: in ruins, ruin the surprise, ruin someone's day, castle ruins, go to ruin.
examples
- The rain ruined our picnic. tree →
- Don't tell me the ending — you'll ruin the book! tree →
- We explored the ruins of an old castle. tree →
- The city was left in ruins after the earthquake. tree →
- Spilling juice ruined my drawing. tree →
- Romans built the fort, and now only ruins remain. tree →
- Too much salt can ruin the soup. tree →
- My little brother ruined the surprise by telling Mum. tree →
- "It's enough to ruin one's nerves. tree →
note
Regular verb: ruined. Noun is often plural for buildings: «the ruins of Rome». «In ruins» means badly destroyed. Ruined things usually cannot be fixed easily, but a «ruined» day can be just a disappointing day — people exaggerate.
In the corpora
- A missing piece rarely ruins a model: builders swap in another brick, and single pieces can be ordered.
- Sooner or later he will be killed or ruined.
- The Rat is very cross: his boat is lost and his nice suit ruined.
- And simply ruined that nice suit of clothes that I lent you!»
- Bring toys in after playing outside, because rain and sun ruin toys and metal parts rust.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «ruin» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.