ruin of the year

English

Noun

ruin of the year (plural ruins of the year)

1. (chiefly poetic) The dying back of deciduous plants in late autumn.
   • 1813, David Irving, A Memorial of Anne Margaret Anderson, the Wife of David Irving:

     Oh ! bid them cull the myrtle green, Whose deathless bowers adorn the scene, That round her humid cell appear Saved from the ruins of the year;

   • 1816, James Thomson, The seasons; to which is added the life of the author, page 202:

     And, adding to the ruins of the year, Distress the footed or the feathered game.

   • 1958, T. H. White, The Once and Future King‎^[1]:

     ...which were certainly alive in the cunning with which they slipped away, the two boys were prancing about like young fawns in the ruin of the year. Wart's shoulder was well again.