From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbe/lie in ruinsbe/lie in ruinsa) TBBDESTROYif a building is in ruins, it has fallen down or been badly damaged b) FAILif someone’s life, a country’s economy etc is in ruins, it is affected by very great problems Her marriage was in ruins. → ruin
Examples from the Corpus
be/lie in ruins• Large rural areas lay in ruins.• Whole blocks of the city were in ruins after the war.• Our economy lies in ruins.• Elizabeth Jarvis said it was like St Paul's Cathedral, miraculously saved while all around it lay in ruins.• Abingdon's trade had been waning for some time, with its fulling mills lying in ruins and unemployment rife by 1538.• He thought the surrounding towns must lie in ruins now, too.• The centrepiece was a gradual revaluation of the lira against the dollar-a strategy which now lies in ruins.• It was to lie in ruins for another sixty-one years.• I have said, and I say again, that Trantor will lie in ruins within the next five centuries. 