What's the difference between devastate and ruin?

Devastate


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To lay waste; to ravage; to desolate.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) It appears that irrespective of the elucidation of the nature of the putative aetiological factor (presumed to be viral) in MS, the arrest and reversal of T cell-related events within the CNS in this devastating condition represent feasible goals and should remain a major target for some time to come.
  • (2) Samaras said: A "Grexit", as it is called, would be devastating for Greece and detrimental to Europe.
  • (3) While winds gusting to 170mph caused significant damage, the devastation in areas such as Tacloban – where scenes are reminiscent of the 2004 Indian ocean tsunami – was principally the work of the 6-metre-high storm surge, which carried away even the concrete buildings in which many people sought shelter.
  • (4) The Financial Services Authority is meant to be the City's watchdog but "devastating" internal documents reveal it has secretly co-ordinated high-level lobbying strategies with the industry it is supposed to police.
  • (5) The government acknowledged it had been overwhelmed by the devastation from the deadliest quake in Nepal in over 80 years.
  • (6) Mark Rasch, a cyber crime expert quoted by the FT, meanwhile said recent events have been “a serious and devastating attack to [Sony’s] reputation and image”, and his opinion is played out by a new YouGov poll into the public perception of Sony’s brand.
  • (7) "When people don't feel they have a reason to stay out of trouble, the consequences for communities can be devastating – as we saw last August," said Darra Singh, chair of the panel.
  • (8) Newcastle United are “devastated” by their relegation from the Premier League, according to the club’s managing director Lee Charnley.
  • (9) In order to reduce the devasting effects of enteric diseases among children born to mothers in tropical countries of Africa and Asia, it is imperative that all health workers understand the cultural and social perceptions of their clients towards the disease in question.
  • (10) All the personality, dignity and humanity of a person are devastated by this torture.
  • (11) Age UK believes McDonald's human rights have been breached and that there could be "extremely adverse and devastating consequences for many thousands of older people if other councils take similar decisions to save money".
  • (12) And then, as the Guardian revealed at the weekend, there is the potentially devastating effect of the boundary changes, which can’t really be brought in before an early election but will radically tilt the field by 2020.
  • (13) He said: "[That] could be devastating for the renewables industry.
  • (14) To say that the loss of BB King is devastating to the blues community is an understatement.
  • (15) 'Devastated' Peter Greste calls on Egypt's president to pardon trio Read more “It’s ironic that the conviction was for tarnishing Egypt’s reputation when ... this [case] is what’s tarnished Egypt’s image,” Clooney told BBC News.
  • (16) The report, extracts of which were published by the investigative news website Exaro , is said to include “devastating detail” of the corporation’s “sheer scale of awareness” of the late star’s activities.
  • (17) Although anterior and posterior traumatic displacement of cervical vertebrae are commonly noted, and the devastating neurological deficits associated with these injuries have been amply defined, lateral displacement with fractures has been rarely recognized, and the clinical significance of this injury has been overlooked.
  • (18) Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Met commissioner, said a report revealing the undercover officers had spied on the family of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence was “devastating” for Scotland Yard and “one of the worst days that I have seen as a police officer”.
  • (19) The case for halting British arms sales to Saudi Arabia has been evident, not only on moral grounds, since civilians started dying in the conflict devastating Yemen.
  • (20) Devastating neurologic complications can be avoided or alleviated in a great proportion of patients undergoing radiation therapy for cerebral metastases and spinal cord compression.

Ruin


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of falling or tumbling down; fall.
  • (n.) 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.
  • (n.) That which is fallen down and become worthless from injury or decay; as, his mind is a ruin; especially, in the plural, the remains of a destroyed, dilapidated, or desolate house, fortress, city, or the like.
  • (n.) The state of being dcayed, or of having become ruined or worthless; as, to be in ruins; to go to ruin.
  • (n.) That which promotes injury, decay, or destruction.
  • (n.) To bring to ruin; to cause to fall to pieces and decay; to make to perish; to bring to destruction; to bring to poverty or bankruptcy; to impair seriously; to damage essentially; to overthrow.
  • (v. i.) To fall to ruins; to go to ruin; to become decayed or dilapidated; to perish.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Because they generally have to be positioned on hills to get the maximum benefits of the wind, some complain that they ruin the landscape.
  • (2) Even regional allies disagree with American priorities about Isis, Biddle noted, which is why Turkey continues to bomb Kurds and Saudi Arabia and the UAE arm groups around the region , most notably in Syria but also in the ruins of Yemen .
  • (3) It trickled back to me somehow that, ‘Goddammit, Johnny Depp’s ruining the film!
  • (4) A procedure is described for the rapid determination of putrascine, spermine and spermidine in ruine and whole blood.
  • (5) Hitchcock's attempts to keep Hedren in a gilded cage arguably ruined her career.
  • (6) Conference, five years ago this motion would have ruined my life.
  • (7) But illegal action will only ruin any chance of dialogue with Tehran.
  • (8) The lid is fiddly to fit on to the cup, and smells so strongly of silicone it almost entirely ruins the taste of the coffee if you don’t remove it.
  • (9) In Niki Savva’s book The Road to Ruin: How Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin Destroyed Their Own Government, Credlin has even been compared to Wallis Simpson, a deeply weird analogy.
  • (10) "While the country is sunk in misery, families are ruined and children are growing up in poverty, this guy turns up and we pay €91m for him.
  • (11) Anuraj Sivarajah, online editor of the newspaper, said he was very clear who was to blame for the attacks and arson that has brought the newspaper near financial ruin.
  • (12) In 1995 8,000 people whose lives were ruined by the Montserrat volcano settled in Britain.
  • (13) They belong to the people who built Choquequirao, one of the most remote Inca settlements in the Andes, and were stashed here by the archaeologists who, over the past 20 years, have been slowly freeing the ruins from the cloud forest.
  • (14) Even the avuncular governor of the Irish central bank, Professor Patrick Honohan, was forced to admit that pumping up to €70bn of taxpayers' money into the ruined banks "doesn't score highly on fairness" when he announced the fifth bailout on Thursday.
  • (15) Three thousand cheers for Will Self ( Has English Heritage ruined Stonehenge?
  • (16) But Denton’s attempts to apply extreme openness to others could cost the ruin of his company.
  • (17) His torturers accused him of passing on to British officials information about previous beatings at the hands of state officials and other human rights abuses, to ruin diplomatic relations between the two countries, he said.
  • (18) As Google states, it is definitely in the company’s best interest to get its first smartglass customers to behave, as “breaking the rules or being rude will not get businesses excited about Glass and will ruin it for other Explorers”.
  • (19) The notion that Gleeson has lurched from one disaster to another, ruining everything from the Coen brothers' remake of True Grit to Richard Curtis's romcom About Time , seems a pretty unique interpretation of his burgeoning career as a versatile character actor.
  • (20) But there was scepticism over whether the more radical elements on either side would obey the ceasefire, and concern in Kiev and western capitals that the truce would effectively "freeze" the conflict and give Moscow de facto control over the disputed chunk of eastern Ukraine that has been ruined by war this summer.