Crossword Genius

Damage ladder one’s carried (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

ruin

'damage' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'ladder one's carried' is the wordplay.
'ladder' becomes 'run' (both can mean a tear in tights).
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'carried' is an insertion indicator (one word carried by another word).
'run' enclosing 'i' is 'RUIN'.

(Other definitions for ruin that I've seen before include "Irreparably damage" , "Total disaster" , "Disaster, collapse" , "state of collapse" , "Destroy completely" .)

I've seen this clue in The Sunday Times.
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