Undoing

//ʌnˈduːɪŋ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of loosening or unfastening
  2. 2
    loosening the ties that fasten something wordnet
  3. 3
    Ruin; defeat, (also) that which causes defeat or ruin.

    "In the end, his jealousy was his undoing."

  4. 4
    an act that makes a previous act of no effect (as if not done) wordnet
  5. 5
    Annulment; reversal
Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of undo form-of, gerund, participle, present

Example

More examples

"To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English undoinge, undoynge, ondoynge; equivalent to undo + -ing.

Etymology 2

From Middle English undoynge, undoand, from Old English undōnde (“undoing”), from Proto-Germanic *andadōndz, present participle of *andadōną (“to undo”). Cognate with Dutch ontdoend (“undoing”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.