ruinousnessn.

1574 T. Tymme tr. P. de la Place in tr. J. de Serres Three Partes Comm. Ciuill Warres Fraunce i. sig. K^v Many haue been constrayned without ordinarie callyng..to take vpon them to repaire the ruinousnesse of the decayed Church.

1623 F. Rous Oile of Scorpions ii. vii. 97 The abatement of tithes, the ruinousnesse or the neglect of the House of God, and the profaning of the Lords day must needs be corrosiues to Religion.

1665 T. Manley tr. H. Grotius De Rebus Belgicis 78 The Ruinousness of their Walls, which to other Cities is a great Evil, was an Advantage to this.

1702 W. Bohun Privilegia Londini 54 Keem pleads a Special Plea in Bar, shewing the Ruinousness of the House.

1846 J. Ruskin Mod. Painters (ed. 3) I. 104 When the artist suffers the mere love of ruinousness to interfere with his perception of the art of the building,..he has lost the end of his own art.

1889 Graphic 21 Dec. 768/3 Such hopeless ruinousness as that into which the grand churches of Sall and Cawston are falling.

1921 S. Colvin Memories & Notes xvii. 302 With all this pageantry in sky and sea, what a sense of desolation, of ruinousness and death.

2007 Sun Herald (Sydney) (Nexis) 1 July 16 It was utterly derelict when we first saw it... The wind was blowing the leaves through the door and there was a romantic ruinousness about it that was captivating.

1660 R. Allestree Gentlemans Calling 45 The ruinousness of a perverse will is so generally understood.

1835 Tait's Edinb. Mag. New Ser. 2 407 The ruinousness of a Chancery suit.

1879 M. Arnold Mixed Ess. 309 The ruinousness, to a poet, of symbols, hieroglyphics, mystifications.

1915 Living Age 30 Oct. 316/1 The war must reach a certain pitch of ruinousness before men will see the necessity of stamping it out like a plague.

1999 S. A. Bandes Passions of Law ii. iv. 135 The presence of anger, resentment, and vindictiveness is the motivating force behind the persistence,..and the ruinousness of a great many lawsuits.