Word Finder - ruinous

definition

Causing ruin; destructive, calamitous

definition

Extremely costly; so expensive as to cause financial ruin.

example

They were forced to completely replace the roof at ruinous expense.

definition

Characterized by ruin; ruined; dilapidated; as, an edifice, bridge, or wall in a ruinous state.

The results were ruinous to France.

It was finally destroyed by Glendower, was a "ruinous building" when seen by Leland (1536) and has since wholly disappeared.

Iraq and Iran blame each other for their ruinous war and each sees the outcome as a victory.

But on the whole there was no ruinous devastation of the land.

Briihl must therefore be held wholly responsible for the ruinous policy which destroyed the position of Saxony in Germany between 1733 and 1763; for the mistaken ambition which led Frederick Augustus II.

Under these circumstances the narrowing of the band is paid for at a ruinous price, and the arrangement must be condemned altogether.

By 1887 the church was in an almost ruinous condition.

For smaller farmers, however, the increased costs of seeds could prove ruinous.

The 10 th Earl had removed the roof in 1746, allowing the property to become ruinous (Coventry, 2001 ).

These are the five besetting sins of a general, ruinous to the conduct of war.

The magnificently situated Urquhart Castle, on the banks of Loch Ness, remains an impressive stronghold despite its ruinous state.

He repaired as far as possible the ruinous effects of his father's wastefulness, but on his accession found everything in the utmost confusion, "the great lords," to cite the old chronicler Rogerius (c. 1223-1266), "having so greatly enriched themselves that the king was brought to naught."

When, after the introduction of cattle plague or rinderpest in 1865, the proposal was made to resort to the extreme remedy of slaughter in order to check the ravages of a disease which was pursuing its course with ruinous results, the idea was received with public indignation and denounced as barbarous.

Though restored by Augustus and renamed Sebaste, after the great earthquake of 15 B.C., and visited in state by Titus before his Jewish War in 79 B.C., it was ruinous and desolate by Jerome's time 3; but the prestige of its priest-kings partly lingers in the exceptional privileges of the patriarch of the Cypriote Church (see Cyprus, Church Of).

The government had not elasticity enough to adapt itself to so profound a change in its ancient traditions; the finances became more and more hopelessly embarrassed, in spite of ruinous taxation; and attempts at European innovations in the court and army made matters only worse, so long as no attempt was made to improve Muhammad VI.

It might thus be possible to avoid waste, sudden crises, ruinous competition and foreign commercial dictation.

In 1857 two zemindars, Umar Singh and Kumar Singh, rebelled against the British government, and for some months held the ruinous fort of Rohtas against the British.

But on the whole there was no ruinous devastation df the land.

Its professed aim is to save the environment, but its practical effect in many instances may be ruinous for poor countries.

At the instigation of France they plunged recklessly into the Seven Years' War; and the result was ruinous.

It is surrounded by a ruinous mud wall flanked by towers; a quarter of a mile east of it stands a mud fort, 180 yds.

Within, there is a ruinous walled village, and the shell of an old Venetian fortress, surrounded by mosques and bazaars; for Antivari is rather Turkish than Montenegrin.

The king replied by harrying him on charges of having failed in his feudal obligation to provide well-equipped knights for a Welsh expedition, and imposed ruinous fines on him.

They lie along the course of the Andraki river, whose navigable estuary is still fringed with ruinous quays.

Though the population is diminished and the cities ruinous, the country is still remarkable for fertility, thanks to the copiousness of its water-supply draining from the Lebanon mountains.

The ruinous expenditure upon the Great Armada had also depleted the Spanish treasury and Philip found himself virtually bankrupt.

As a consequence of this, in place of receiving the farm produce at his own home the chief or noble reserved to himself the right of quartering himself and a certain number of followers in the house of his vassal, a practice which must have been ruinous to the small farmers.

On his return to Ireland, Sussex was outmatched both in war and diplomacy; the loyal chiefs were crushed one by one; and the English suffered checks of which the moral effect was ruinous.

The interests of the tenant were so carefully guarded that the prices obtainable were ruinous to the vendor unless he had other resources.

Owners, however, could not with any pretence of justice be forced to sell at ruinous prices, nor tenants be forced to give more than they thought fair.

Exactions, debasement of the currency and extortionate taxation were ruinous palliatives, and insufficient to supply a treasury which the revenue from crown lands and various rights taken from the nobles could not fill even in times of peace.

After three years of strife, ruinous to both sides, he made the first overtures of peace, thus marking an epoch in his foreign policy; though William took no unfair advantage of this, remaining content with the restitution of places taken by the Cliambres de Rtunion, except Strassburg, with a frontier-line of fortified places for the Dutch, and with the official deposition of the Stuarts.

All vitality had been sapped from the old order of nobles, reduced in prestige by the savonnette a vilains (office purchased to ennoble the holder), enervated by court life, and so robbed of its roots in the soil, from which it had once drawn its strength, that it could no longer live save as a ruinous parasite on the central monarchy.

Napoleon had hardly succeeded in putting down the revolt in Germany when the tsar himself headed a European insurrection against the ruinous tyranny of the continental Russian campaign.

The ruinous failure of the great Armada in 1588 demonstrated the incapacity of Spain to maintain her pretensions.

The city was several times ravaged by the Turks, and had become quite ruinous when the emperor John Ducas Vatatzes about 1222 rebuilt it.

In 1723 it was destroyed, being already ruinous, and the site levelled after the erection of Blenheim House, a princely mansion erected by Parliament for the duke of Marlborough in consideration of his military services, and especially his decisive victory at Blenheim.

The result was a fresh triumph for the papacy, Archbishop Wido, in face of the ruinous conflict in the Church of Milan, being forced to submit to the terms proposed by the legates, which involved the principle of the subordination of Milan to Rome; the new relation was advertized by the unwilling attendance of Wido and the other Milanese bishops at the council summoned to the Lateran palace in April 1059.

In the month of September of that year he made himself famous, gained immense advantage for the Company, and inflicted ruinous loss on the Spaniards, by the capture of the fleet which was bringing the bullion from the American mines home to Spain.

Why, no, you ruinous butt; you whoreson indistinguishable cur, no.

But for the biggest, potentially ruinous, buys of our lives, most of us are poorly advised lambs ready to be fleeced.

Now largely ruinous, the south gate still shows the slot for the portcullis on the west side.

There is a clear entrance, flanked by an outer protective work, now very ruinous.

A structure in the countryside that is so ruinous that it has to be substantially or entirely re-built will not be suitable.

Toward Castle The castle now ruinous was the principal castle of the Lamont family.

In Leland 's time, Appleby was but a poor village, having a ruinous castle, wherein the prisoners were kept.

The castle could have given them no shelter being in its ruinous state.

It is the opposite of Oxfam 's emphasis on the path of ruinous competition between countries seeking market access.

The inner court contains a range of ruinous buildings dating from the 12th to the 16th century, including Leicester 's Building.

The 10 th Earl had removed the roof in 1746, allowing the property to become ruinous (Coventry, 2001).