ruinouslyadv.

c1450 tr. G. Boccaccio De Claris Mulieribus (1924) 431 (MED) She leyde a sege after to Babylon..That was chefe cyte in that regyon; And, for it wass appeyrede ruynously, With grete coste she dydd it reedyfy.

?1545 J. Bale 2nd Pt. Image Both Churches ii. sig. Ciiij^v Egypte..is ruynouslye decayed.

1590 T. Fenne Frutes f. 82 Troy was taken, beeing sacked, spoyled, beaten downe and ruinously defaced with fire by the Greeks.

1628 G. Wither Britain's Remembrancer vi. 852 Gods Temples being ruinously old.

1660 R. Allestree Gentlemans Calling Pref. sig. b7 You cast away Estate..and..imploy your selves the most ruinously, rather then endure to be Idle.

1704 P. Slynehead Spiritual Wickedness vi. 30/2 Ruinously they did presume My whole Estate for to consume.

1768 Woman of Honor I. 34 Nothing..is easier..than to ruinously confound a true good with a false one.

1832 C. Babbage Econ. Machinery & Manuf. (ed. 2) xxiv. 231 Whilst the manufacturers..are complaining of the ruinously low price of their produce.

1864 Englishw. in India 24 Table ornaments are ruinously dear out here.

1897 M. Kingsley Trav. W. Afr. 542 A curse or evil disease, curable only by ruinously expensive process.

1928 Burlington Mag. July 31/1 Unfortunately the artist pasted strips of vellum over the junctions of the panels, and these have been ruinously affected by damp.

1964 Ann. Reg. 1963 221 The arms race was becoming ruinously expensive.

1996 Newsweek (Nexis) 17 June Compared with the frugal Germans and Japanese, we are ruinously self-indulgent.