ruins

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of ruin.

   Archaeologists carefully mapped the ruins before excavation began.

   Ivy had crept over the crumbling ruins of the abbey.

   Note

   The plural mostly belongs to the remains of buildings, and it often names what is left of a single structure rather than several: the ruins of the abbey are one abbey. The uncountable meanings (the state of decay, or whatever brings someone to grief) normally stay singular. The same spelling is also the present-tense verb, so the ruins of a castle and she ruins everything differ only in grammar.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of ruin.

   A single typo ruins the whole document.

   Constant noise ruins her concentration at work.

   Note

   Nearly every living use of this present-tense form takes a direct object: a typo ruins the document, a spoiler ruins the film, a bad deal ruins the company. The intransitive use, a building simply falling into decay, is obsolete, so "the old house ruins" now reads as a mistake. To say a structure is decaying, use another verb or the noun instead.

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