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Such a change of anything as destroys it, or entirely defeats its object, or unfits it for use; destruction; overthrow; as, the ruin of a ship or an army; the ruin of a constitution or a government; the ruin of health or hopes. "Ruin seize thee, ruthless king!" Gray.

To demolish; to subvert; to destroy; to reduce to poverty; to ruin. I will not ruinate my fShak. Ruinating thereby the health of their bodies. Burton.

Hence, to destroy, surrender, or suffer to be lost, for the sake of obtaining something; to give up in favor of a higher or more imperative object or duty; to devote, with loss or suffering. Condemned to sacrifice his childish years To babbling ignorance, and to empty fears. Prior. The Baronet had sacrificed a large su…

To subvert by digging or wearing away; to mine; to undermine; to destroy the foundation of. Nor safe their dwellings were, for sapped by floods, Their houses fell upon their household gods. Dryden.

Breaking or destroying stones; saxifragous. [R.] -- n.

To do harm to; to injure; to damage; to waste; to destroy. As when heaven's fire Hath scathed the forest oaks or mountain pines. Milton. Strokes of calamity that scathe and scorch the soul. W. Irwing.

To burn; to destroy by, or as by, fire. Power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. Rev. xvi. 8. The fire that scorches me to death. Dryden.

Destroying, or tending to destroy, one's self or itself; rucidal.

To slip to one side of a ship, so as to destroy the equilibrum; -- said of ballast or cargo; as, the cargo shifted.

A ship wrecked or destroyed upon the water, or the parts of such a ship; wreckage. Dryden.

to celebrate something in poetry. Milton. Bid her . . . sing Of human hope by cross event destroyed. Prior.

guratively: To cause to decline; to depress; to degrade; hence, to ruin irretrievably; to destroy, as by drowping; as, to sink one's reputation. I raise of sink, imprison or set free. Prior. If I have a conscience, let it sink me. Shak. Thy cruel and unnatural lust of power Has sunk thy father more than all his years.…

One of the triad of Hindoo gods. He is the avenger or destroyer, and in modern worship symbolizes the reproductive power of nature.

in the process of grafting. See Graft, v. t., 2. -- Skin moth (Zoöl.), any insect which destroys the prepared skins of animals, especially the larva of Dermestes and Anthrenus. -- Skin of the teeth, nothing, or next to nothing; the least possible hold or advantage. Job xix. 20. -- Skin wool, wool taken from dead sh…

To put to death with a weapon, or by violence; hence, to kill; to put an end to; to destroy. With this sword then will I slay you both. Chaucer. I will slay the last of them with the sword. Amos ix. 1. I'll slay more gazers than the basilisk. Shak.

A dislocation of a lead, destroying continuity. Knight.

To destroy the life of by beating, or by weapons of any kind; to slay by a blow; to kill; as, to smite one with the sword, or with an arrow or other instrument.

To destroy the life of by suffocation; to deprive of the air necessary for life; to cover up closely so as to prevent breathing; to suffocate; as, to smother a child.

To injure or destroy, as a steamboat or other vessel, by a snag, or projecting part of a sunken tree. [U. S.]

A thinking agent can not be severed into parts; That which can not be severed can not be destroyed; Therefore the soul can not be destroyed.