different between ruin vs kill

English

Etymology

From Middle English ruyne, ruine, from Old French ruine, from Latin ru?na (“overthrow, ruin”), from ru? (“I fall down, tumble, sink in ruin, rush”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??u?.?n/
• Rhymes: -u??n

Noun

ruin (countable and uncountable, plural ruins)

1. (countable, sometimes in the plural) The remains of a destroyed or dilapidated construction, such as a house or castle.

   • The Veian and the Gabian towirs shall fall, / And one promiscuous ruin cover all; / Nor, after length of years, a stone betray / The place where once the very ruins lay.

   • a. 1812, Joseph Stevens Buckminster, sermon

     The labour of a day will not build up a virtuous habit on the ruins of an old and vicious character.
2. (uncountable) The state of being a ruin, destroyed or decayed.

3. (uncountable) Something that leads to serious trouble or destruction.
   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Youth and Age

     The errors of young men are the ruin of business.

   • The Bat—they called him the Bat. […]. He […] played a lone hand, […]. Most lone wolves had a moll at any rate—women were their ruin—but if the Bat had a moll, not even the grapevine telegraph could locate her.

4. (obsolete) A fall or tumble.
5. A change that destroys or defeats something; destruction; overthrow.
   • 1768, Thomas Gray, The Bard

     Ruin seize thee, ruthless king!

6. (uncountable) Complete financial loss; bankruptcy.

Translations

Verb

ruin (third-person singular simple present ruins, present participle ruining, simple past and past participle ruined or (dialectal, nonstandard) ruint)

1. (transitive) To cause the fiscal ruin of.

   With all these purchases, you surely mean to ruin us!

   • 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island

     In one way, indeed, he bade fair to ruin us; for he kept on staying week after week, and at last month after month, so that all the money had been long exhausted...

2. To destroy or make something no longer usable.

   He ruined his new white slacks by accidentally spilling oil on them.

   • 1857, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Golden Mile-Stone

     By the fireside there are old men seated, / Seeing ruined cities in the ashes.

3. To cause severe financial loss to; to bankrupt or drive out of business.

   The crooked stockbroker's fraudulent scheme ruined dozens of victims; some investors lost their life savings and even their houses.

4. To upset or overturn the plans or progress of, or to have a disastrous effect on something.

   My car breaking down just as I was on the road ruined my vacation.

5. To make something less enjoyable or likeable.

   I used to love that song, but being assaulted when that song was playing ruined the song for me.

6. To reveal the ending of (a story); to spoil.
7. (obsolete) To fall into a state of decay.
   • 1636, George Sandys, Paraphrase upon the Psalmes and upon the Hymnes dispersed throughout the Old and New Testaments

     Though he his house of polisht marble build, / Yet shall it ruine like the Moth's fraile cell

8. (transitive, historical) To seduce or debauch, and thus harm the social standing of.

   The young libertine was notorious for ruining local girls.

Synonyms

• destroy
• fordo
• ruinate
• wreck
• See also Thesaurus:spoil

Antonyms

• build
• construct
• found
• produce

Related terms

• ruination
• ruinable
• ruiner
• ruinous
• ruint

Translations

Further reading

• ruin in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• ruin in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• ruin at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Irun

Asturian

Adjective

ruin m sg (feminine singular ruina, neuter singular ruino, masculine plural ruinos, feminine plural ruines)

1. weedy

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch ruun. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rœy?n/
• Hyphenation: ruin
• Rhymes: -œy?n

Noun

ruin m (plural ruinen, diminutive ruintje n)

1. gelding

See also

• hengst

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin ruina

Noun

ruin m (definite singular ruinen, indefinite plural ruiner, definite plural ruinene)

1. ruin (often in plural form when referring to buildings)

References

• “ruin” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Latin ruina

Noun

ruin m (definite singular ruinen, indefinite plural ruinar, definite plural ruinane)

1. ruin (often in plural form when referring to buildings)

References

• “ruin” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Spanish

Etymology

From an earlier *ruino, from ruina, or from a Vulgar Latin root *ru?nus, ultimately from Latin ru?na. Compare Portuguese ruim, Catalan roí.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?rwin/, [?rw?n]

Adjective

ruin (plural ruines)

1. contemptible, mean, heartless

   Synonyms: vil, despreciable

2. mean, stingy

   Synonyms: avaro, mezquino, tacaño, usurero, agarrado, cicatero

3. wild; unruly

   Synonyms: salvaje, agresto

4. rachitic

   Synonym: raquítico

Swedish

Noun

ruin c

1. a ruin (remains of a building)
2. ruin (financial bankruptcy)

Declension

Related terms

• ruinera

Anagrams

• urin

Tetum

Noun

ruin

1. bone

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??l/
• Rhymes: -?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English killen, kyllen, cüllen (“to strike, beat, cut”), of obscure origin.

• Perhaps from Old English *cyllan, from Proto-West Germanic *kwulljan, from Proto-Germanic *kwuljan?, from Proto-Indo-European *g?elH- (“to throw, hit, hurt by throwing”).
• Or, possibly a variant of Old English cwellan (“to kill, murder, execute”) (see quell)
• Or, from Old Norse kolla (“to hit on the head, harm”), related to Norwegian kylla (“to poll”), Middle Dutch kollen (“to knock down”), Icelandic kollur (“top, head”); see also coll, cole).

Compare also Middle Dutch killen, kellen (“to kill”), Middle Low German killen (“to ache strongly, cause one great pain”), Middle High German kellen (“to torment; torture”).

Verb

kill (third-person singular simple present kills, present participle killing, simple past and past participle killed)

1. (transitive) To put to death; to extinguish the life of.
2. (transitive) To render inoperative.
   • 1978, John Farris, The Fury

     Peter: Ask Childers if it was worth his arm.

     Policeman: What did you do to his arm, Peter?

     Peter: I killed it, with a machine gun.

3. (transitive, figuratively) To stop, cease, or render void; to terminate.

4. (transitive, figuratively, hyperbolic) To amaze, exceed, stun, or otherwise incapacitate.

5. (transitive, figuratively, hyperbolic) To cause great pain, discomfort, or distress to.
6. (transitive, figuratively) To produce feelings of dissatisfaction or revulsion in.

7. (transitive) To use up or to waste.

8. (transitive, figuratively, informal) To exert an overwhelming effect on.

9. (transitive, figuratively, hyperbolic) To overpower, overwhelm, or defeat.

10. (transitive) To force a company out of business.
11. (intransitive, informal, hyperbolic) To produce intense pain.

12. (figuratively, informal, hyperbolic, transitive) To punish severely.
13. (transitive, sports) To strike (a ball, etc.) with such force and placement as to make a shot that is impossible to defend against, usually winning a point.
14. (transitive, sports) To cause (a ball, etc.) to be out of play, resulting in a stoppage of gameplay.
15. To succeed with an audience, especially in comedy.
16. (mathematics, transitive, informal) To cause to assume the value zero.
17. (computing, Internet, IRC, transitive) To disconnect (a user) involuntarily from the network.
18. (metallurgy) To deadmelt.

Synonyms

• (to put to death): assassinate, bump off, dispatch, ice, knock off, liquidate, murder, rub out, slaughter, slay, top, whack
• (to use up or waste): fritter away, while away
• (to render inoperative): break, deactivate, disable, turn off
• (to exert an overwhelming effect on): annihilate (informal)
• See also Thesaurus:kill

Hyponyms

• instakill
• instant kill

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

kill (plural kills)

1. The act of killing.

2. Specifically, the death blow.

3. The result of killing; that which has been killed.

   • If ye plunder his kill' from a weaker, devour not all in thy pride.

4. (volleyball) The grounding of the ball on the opponent's court, winning the rally.
   • 2011, the 34th Catawba College Sports Hall of Fame, in Catawba College's Campus Magazine, Spring/Summer 2011, page 21:

     As a senior in 1993, Turner had a kill percentage of 40.8, which was a school record at the time and the best in the SAC. Turner concluded her volleyball career with 1,349 kills, ranking fifth all-time at Catawba.

Derived terms

• in for the kill
• thrill kill

Translations

Etymology 2

Borrowing from Dutch kil, from Middle Dutch kille.

Noun

kill (plural kills)

1. (north-east US) A creek; a body of water; a channel or arm of the sea.

Translations

Etymology 3

Noun

kill (plural kills)

1. A kiln.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Fuller to this entry?)

Cahuilla

Adverb

kíll

1. Not

German

Pronunciation

Verb

kill

1. singular imperative of killen
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of killen

Livonian

Etymology 1

Related to Finnish kylvää.

Alternative forms

• (Courland) killõ

Verb

kill

1. sow

Etymology 2

Related to Estonian kõlama.

Alternative forms

• (Courland) ki'llõ

Verb

kill

1. ring
2. make noise

Luxembourgish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kil/
• Rhymes: -il

Etymology 1

From Old High German kuoli, from Proto-West Germanic *k?l(?), from Proto-Germanic *k?laz. Cognate with German kühl, English cool, Dutch koel, Low German kool.

Adjective

kill (masculine killen, neuter killt, comparative méi kill, superlative am killsten)

1. cool

Declension

Related terms

• kal

Etymology 2

Verb

kill

1. second-person singular imperative of killen

Ter Sami

Etymology

From Proto-Samic *kielë.

Noun

kill

1. language

Derived terms

• samekill

Further reading

• Koponen, Eino; Ruppel, Klaas; Aapala, Kirsti, editors (2002-2008) Álgu database: Etymological database of the Saami languages?^[6], Helsinki: Research Institute for the Languages of Finland

Westrobothnian

Etymology

From Old Norse kið

Noun

kill f

1. female kid (young goat)