ruin
Complete destruction or collapse
Ruin is destruction or severe damage—the state of being wrecked beyond repair or use.
A building falls into ruin; a scandal brings financial ruin.
The plural ruins refers to what remains of destroyed structures: ancient ruins, the ruins of the castle.
To ruin something is to destroy or spoil it completely: The rain ruined the picnic.
A person can be ruined financially, socially, or emotionally.
In older usage, a woman's ruin meant loss of virginity or reputation.
Fragment gradually
- deteriorationProcess of declining quality
- erosionGradual wearing away
- corrosionChemical wearing away
- weatheringAtmospheric breakdown of materials
disintegration · rot · dilapidation · neglect · abandonment · overgrown · derelict · decrepit
Deliberate structural destruction
- devastationSevere widespread destruction
- wreckageDestroyed remains of something
- rubbleBroken building fragments
- annihilationUtter, complete destruction
obliteration · razing · bombing · fire · earthquake · flood · war · siege
Cessation of existence
- collapseSudden structural failure
- declineDecrease or refuse
- failureLack of success
- bankruptcyLegal status when insolvent
disgrace · undoing · destruction · devastation · loss · defeat · scandal · corruption
Act of unearthing
- digUnearth by shoveling
- siteDesignated location
- artifactsHuman-made historical objects
- relicsPreserved items from antiquity
pottery · inscriptions · tomb · stratigraphy · preservation · conservation · restoration · surveying
Legal status when insolvent
- insolvencyInability to pay debts
- debtMoney owed another
- destitutionExtreme poverty, lacking necessities
- impoverishmentState of extreme deprivation
foreclosure · default · collapse · crash · loss · squander · waste · deplete
crumble
Fragment gradually
- deteriorationProcess of declining quality
- erosionGradual wearing away
- corrosionChemical wearing away
weathering · disintegration · rot · dilapidation · neglect · abandonment · overgrown · derelict · decrepit · tumbledown
demolition
Deliberate structural destruction
- devastationSevere widespread destruction
- wreckageDestroyed remains of something
- rubbleBroken building fragments
annihilation · obliteration · razing · bombing · fire · earthquake · flood · war · siege · sacking
demise
Cessation of existence
bankruptcy · disgrace · undoing · destruction · devastation · loss · defeat · scandal · corruption · hubris
excavation
Act of unearthing
relics · pottery · inscriptions · tomb · stratigraphy · preservation · conservation · restoration · surveying · shard
bankruptcy
Legal status when insolvent
- insolvencyInability to pay debts
- debtMoney owed another
- destitutionExtreme poverty, lacking necessities
impoverishment · foreclosure · default · collapse · crash · loss · squander · waste · deplete · drain
Colosseum
Flavian arena in Rome
- ParthenonAncient Greek hilltop temple
- PompeiiVolcano-buried Roman city
- PetraRock-carved Jordanian ruins
Machu Picchu · Angkor Wat · Acropolis · Tikal · Palmyra · Ephesus · Carthage · ziggurat · temple · pyramid
- historyancient civilizations, past events, historian, epochs, era
- damagebreakage, break, crack, fracture, dent
- dangersdanger, peril, hazard, risk, menace
- decayrot, decay rate, wilt, crumble, decomposition
- desolationbleakness, barrenness, emptiness, wasteland, desolation
- despairdespair, hopelessness, desolation, despondency, dejection
ruinbuilding
Enclosed roofed structure
edifice · construction · monument · tower · palace
- ancient ruinsDecayed structures from antiquity
- financial ruinComplete loss of wealth
- in ruins
- road to ruinCourse toward destruction
- Greek ruinsAncient structural remains
- Roman ruinsAncient imperial remnants
ruined, ruins, ruining, ruinous, ruination, unruined, ruinations