1562 tr. Louis, Prince de Condé Seconde Declar. sig. B.iii They..wold make an ende of the ruinyng of this realme.

1603 M. Drayton Barrons Wars i. liv. 19 The Marchers..now perceiue theyr dilatory stay To be the causer of their ruining.

1660 R. Coke Elements Power & Subjection 71 in Justice Vindicated They must..dispose their own subjects to the ruining and destroying of one another.

a1700 in J. Russell Haigs of Bemersyde (1881) 477 Heart burnings betwixt the 2 houses..layed the foundation of runeing of both the famalies.

1713 Let. 6 Dec. in R. Steele Englishman (1714) No. 31. 201 This signifies no more the ruining of the Port, than the blowing up the Risbank has done.

1789 J. Gough Hist. People called Quakers III. xxix. 150 The principal informer..had formed a project to get himself appointed high constable,..and expedite the impoverishing or ruining of friends in their estates.

a1822 P. B. Shelley Witch of Atlas lxx, in Posthumous Poems (1824) 52 She Restored the embalmers ruining.

1891 ‘S. C. Scrivener’ Our Fields & Cities 133 Large holdings have been the ruining of Italy and her provinces.

1905 Black Cat Mar. 29 You talk about me ruining myself..but if you don't help me get the paper out with this in it, you'll do the ruining.

1947 P. Newton Wayleggo 86 By dint of much labour, not to mention the ruining of several nibbies..they finally chipped a hole in ice.

2005 Pop. Sci. Feb. 70/1 It involved the accidental spilling of a certain radioactive substance and the ruining of an experiment.

1605 B. Jonson Sejanus i. sig. C4 Whose ruining fire His vigilance, and labor kept restraind. View more context for this quotation

1668 J. Flavell Saint Indeed 52 God will preserve your Souls from the ruining power of temptation.

1693 R. Fleming Disc. Earthquakes 100 An Adversary who..hath had such prevailing Successes, to carry on a ruining and judicial work.

a1732 T. Boston Crook in Lot (1805) 124 I fear a ruining design of providence against me therein.

1733 E. Erskine Serm. in Wks. (1871) II. 162 Ruining judgments are deferred or removed.

1763 L. Taylor Ess. Revelation Apostle John ii. 124 The spiritual electors..who have been so active in this ruining war.

1848 Eclectic Mag. Feb. 168/2 Thus political excitement has been at once a raising and a ruining influence to the writings of a great English author.

1894 L. Johnson in E. W. Rinder Poems & Lyrics of Nature 145 Far From this pure rest, the Land's drear End, And ruining waters, are.

1911 tr. R. Wagner My Life I. 412 The ruining influence of ignorant court managers, which could never be overcome.

1966 Pop. Mech. May 166/2 Brake system. Here's another area which is exposed to the ruining effects of snow-piled roads and those high ridges of icy slush.

1985 C. Higham Orson Welles xiv. 310 Welles emphasized again the mortality of human beings, their essential fragility, the death of chivalry, and the ruining effects of power.

1685 A. Lovell tr. T. Skinner Hist. Affairs Eng. 95 in tr. G. Bate Elenchus Motuum Nuperorum in Anglia No man that had a sense of humane Miseries, could see, and not be affected with the dismal spectacle of the Ruining City of London.

1778 T. Townson Disc. Four Gospels iv. v. 124 Their [sc. the citizens'] mad zeal, rapine, and cruelty..exhibited the scene of a ruining city before the Romans attacked it.

1844 E. B. Barrett Drama of Exile 1939 in Poems I The avalanches of the ruining worlds.

1896 A. C. Swinburne Tale of Balen iv. vii Like jarring steel on ruining walls, So rang their meeting then.

1905 Harper's Mag. Nov. 821/2 It was richly consoling..to find it fronting the ruining mansion and the tangled shrubbery.

1994 C. McCarthy Crossing (1995) iv. 370 The rider sat the horse and looked about the courtyard. The old touring car. The ruining buildings.