Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - ruin

~1 v 1 to spoil or destroy something completely  (The rain ruined our holiday. | My new white dress was totally ruined!)  (- see destroy) 2 to make someone lose all their money  (Jefferson was ruined by the law suit.) - ruined adj only before noun  (ruined houses) ~2 n 1 a situation in which you have lost all your money, your social position, or the good opinion that people had about you  (lead to sb's ruin)  (Joe's rashness led ultimately to his ruin. | be on the road to ruin (=be doing something that will make you lose your money, position etc) | be on the brink of ruin (=be about to lose all your money or your position))  (With the collapse of grain prices, small farmers are on the brink of financial ruin.) 2 be the ruin of humorous to make someone lose all their money, their good health, the good opinion that other people have about them etc  (Drinking was the ruin of him.) 3 also ruins the part of a building that is left after the rest has been destroyed  (an interesting old ruin | the ruins of a bombed-out office block) 4 the ruins of the parts of something such as an organization, system, or set of ideas that remain after the rest have been destroyed  (the ruins of the Welfare State in post-Thatcher Britain) 5 be/lie in ruins a) if a building is in ruins it has fallen down or been badly damaged  (The castle now lies in ruins.) b) if someone's life, hopes, plans, or an organization is in ruins, they are having great problems and cannot continue  (After the war the Japanese economy lay in ruins.) 6 go to ruin also fall into ruin if something goes to ruin it becomes damaged or destroyed because no one is taking care of it  (His brother had let the farm go to ruin.)  (- see also mother's ruin, go to rack and ruin rack1 (4))