different between ruin vs waste

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

• enPR: w?st, IPA^(key): /we?st/
• Rhymes: -e?st
• Homophone: waist

Etymology 1

From Middle English waste (“a waste”, noun), from Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French wast, waste (“a waste”), from Frankish *w?st? (“a waste”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?weh?- (“empty, wasted”).

Noun

waste (countable and uncountable, plural wastes)

1. Excess of material, useless by-products or damaged, unsaleable products; garbage; rubbish.
2. Excrement or urine.

   The cage was littered with animal waste

3. A waste land; an uninhabited desolate region; a wilderness or desert.
4. A place that has been laid waste or destroyed.
5. A large tract of uncultivated land.
6. (historical) The part of the land of a manor (of whatever size) not used for cultivation or grazing, nowadays treated as common land.
7. A vast expanse of water.
8. A disused mine or part of one.
9. The action or progress of wasting; extravagant consumption or ineffectual use.

   That was a waste of time

   Her life seemed a waste

10. Large abundance of something, specifically without it being used.
11. Gradual loss or decay.
12. A decaying of the body by disease; wasting away.
13. (rare) Destruction or devastation caused by war or natural disasters; See "to lay waste"
14. (law) A cause of action which may be brought by the owner of a future interest in property against the current owner of that property to prevent the current owner from degrading the value or character of the property, either intentionally or through neglect.
15. (geology) Material derived by mechanical and chemical erosion from the land, carried by streams to the sea.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English waste (“waste”, adjective), from Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French wast (“waste”), from Frankish *w?st? (“waste, empty”), from Proto-Indo-European *w?sto- (“empty, wasted”). Cognate with Old High German wuosti, wuasti (“waste, empty”), Old Saxon w?sti (“desolate”), Old English w?ste (“waste, barren, desolate, empty”).

Adjective

waste (comparative more waste, superlative most waste)

1. (now rare) Uncultivated, uninhabited.
2. Barren; desert.
   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, page 255:

     For centuries the shrine at Mecca had been of merely local importance, far outshone by the Temple of the Jews in Jerusalem, whose cult Christians had in good measure renewed by their pilgrimage in honour of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, while leaving the actual site of the Jerusalem Temple dishonoured and waste.

3. Rejected as being defective; eliminated as being worthless; produced in excess.
4. Superfluous; needless.
5. Dismal; gloomy; cheerless.
6. Unfortunate; disappointing. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Usage notes

Same meanings as wasted.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English wasten (“to waste, lay waste”), from Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French waster (“to waste, devastate”) (compare also the variant gaster and French gâter from a related Old French word); the Anglo-Norman form waster was either from Frankish *w?stijan (“to waste”), from Proto-Indo-European *w?sto- (“empty, wasted”), or alternatively from Latin vast?re, present active infinitive of vast? and influenced by the Frankish; the English word was assisted by similarity to native Middle English westen ("to waste"; > English weest). Cognate with Old High German wuostan, wuastan, wuostjan (“to waste”) (Modern German wüsten), Old English w?stan (“to lay waste, ravage”).

Verb

waste (third-person singular simple present wastes, present participle wasting, simple past and past participle wasted)

1. (transitive) to devastate, destroy

   • Thou barrein ground, whome winters wrath hath wasted, / Art made a myrrour to behold my plight.

   • The Tiber / Insults our walls, and wastes our fruitful grounds.

2. (transitive) To squander (money or resources) uselessly; to spend (time) idly.
   • 1751, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

     Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, / And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

   • 1909, Francis Galton, Memories of my life, page 69

     E. Kay (1822-1897), afterwards Lord Justice of Appeal, had rooms on the same staircase as myself, and we wasted a great deal of time together, both in term and in my second summer vacation. .

3. (transitive, slang) To kill; to murder.
4. (transitive) To wear away by degrees; to impair gradually; to diminish by constant loss; to use up; to consume; to spend; to wear out.

   • until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness

   • 1769, William Robertson, History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V

     Wasted by such a course of life, the infirmities of age daily grew on him.

5. (intransitive) Gradually lose weight, weaken, become frail.
6. (intransitive) To be diminished; to lose bulk, substance, strength, value etc. gradually.

   • The barrel of meal shall not waste.

7. (law) To damage, impair, or injure (an estate, etc.) voluntarily, or by allowing the buildings, fences, etc., to fall into decay.

Derived terms

Synonyms

• (slang, to kill or murder): cack, top, duppy (see also Thesaurus:kill)

Translations

See also

• Waste on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• waste in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• Sweat, Weast, swate, sweat, tawse, wetas

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???s.t?/

Verb

waste

1. singular past indicative and subjunctive of wassen

Tocharian B

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

waste ?

1. refuge, sanctuary

West Flemish

Noun

waste f

1. laundry, clothes that need to be washed, or just have been washed.