Definition of "ruinous" []

• Causing or apt to cause ruin; destructive. (adjective)
• Falling to ruin; dilapidated or decayed. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "A federal judge has determined that gas pipline manager El Paso did indeed limit natural gas supplies to California, resulting in ruinous prices, rolling blackouts, and smug Cato Institute flaks wagging their fingers at hot-tubbers and environmentalists."
• "Now, the cathedral which crowns the hill, roofless and ruinous, is only imposing from a distance, and a part of it is used for the storage of marine or lighthouse stores under our prosaic and irreverent rule."
• "As for the budget, by allowing the continuing resolution to pass unhindered, the Republicans have in effect agreed to maintain spending at levels they describe as ruinous for the time being."