Quranic root
خرب
kh · r · b
The root centers on making a notch, opening, or perforation, and extends to the ruination or loss of a built or inhabited state.
The lexical development connects piercing and perforation with ruin as the opposite of flourishing or habitation; the sense of a camel-thief is explained as making a breach in another's property. Several specialized bird, plant, and anatomical usages remain distinct branches.
- Maqāyīs · row 1546
- Mufradāt · row 398
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 2
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
أَخْرَبَ
ʾakhraba
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To bring a house, dwelling, or other inhabited place to ruin; to lay waste or demolish it.
In the Quranic construction يُخْرِبُونَ بُيُوتَهُمْ, this is the destructive interpretation of what was done to the houses.
- Lane · entry 18696
- Mufradāt · row 398
Selected Quran examples
Quran 59:2word 33
“they destroyed”
To leave or evacuate a house, leaving it uninhabited or in a state of ruin.
This is a reported Quranic interpretation of يُخْرِبُونَ بُيُوتَهُمْ, emphasizing departure or evacuation rather than the act of demolition itself.
- Lane · entry 18696
- Mufradāt · row 398
خَرَابٌ
kharābun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Ruin, destruction, or waste of a place or building; the condition opposite to flourishing and habitation.
In the Quranic expression خَرَابِهَا, it denotes the ruining or destruction of the mosques.
- Mufradāt · row 398
- Lane · entry 18710
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:114word 13
“their destruction”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 2 occurrencesBroader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 31 Classical meanings
خَرِبَ
To become ruined, waste, uninhabited, depopulated, deserted, desolate, or uncultivated; said of a place, country, dwelling, or house.
An intransitive Form I verb describing the state or becoming of a place.
- Lane · entry 18694
خَرِبَ
To have a slit or round perforation; of an ear, to be slit or pierced.
A distinct Form I use describing a perforated object or ear.
- Lane · entry 18694
خَرَبَ
To steal, especially to steal another person's camels; to become a thief or robber.
The camel-stealing construction is explicitly attested alongside the broader sense of becoming a thief.
- Lane · entry 18694
خَرَبَ
To bore, perforate, or slit a thing.
A transitive Form I use applied to an object that is pierced or opened.
- Lane · entry 18694
أَخْرَبَ
To cause entrusted deposits to be lost or to perish.
A conventional figurative expression describes deposits entrusted to someone as becoming lost with him.
- Lane · entry 18696
تَخَرَّبَ
To become demolished or ruined.
Said of a building or structure; this is a Form V inchoative or middle construction.
- Lane · entry 18697
اِسْتَخْرَبَ
To become perforated with many holes or become full of holes.
Said especially of a skin used for water or milk.
- Lane · entry 18698
اِسْتَخْرَبَ
To become broken by misfortune.
A figurative use reported as such in the lexical evidence.
- Lane · entry 18698
اِسْتَخْرَبَ
To lament for an event or circumstance.
Attested in the construction اِسْتَخْرَبْتُ لِهٰذَا الأَمْرِ.
- Lane · entry 18698
اِسْتَخْرَبَ
To be angry with someone, especially after separation.
A figurative construction directed toward a person who has separated himself from the speaker.
- Lane · entry 18698
اِسْتَخْرَبَ
To yearn toward, long for, or desire someone.
A distinct figurative interpretation of اِسْتَخْرَبَ إِلَيْهِ.
- Lane · entry 18698
نَخْرَبَ
For a canker-worm to corrode a tree.
The form is treated by some authorities as radically quadriliteral.
- Lane · entry 18699
خُرْبٌ
The place where an elevated accumulation of sand terminates, producing trees of the kind called غَضًا.
A topographical noun.
- Lane · entry 18701
خَرَبٌ
The male of the bustard called حُبَارَى; in some usage, the bustard generally.
The plural خِرْبَانٌ is also attested for this bird sense.
- Lane · entry 18702
خَرَبٌ
Cowardly; a coward.
A figurative adjective or substantive use distinct from the bird name.
- Lane · entry 18702
خَرِبٌ
Ruined, waste, uninhabited, depopulated, deserted, desolate, or uncultivated.
An adjective applied to a place, country, dwelling, or place of abode.
- Lane · entry 18703
خَرِبٌ
Without marrow in the bone; figuratively, unsafe to trust or unreliable in keeping an entrusted matter.
These are figurative applications of the adjective.
- Lane · entry 18703
خُرْبَةٌ
A hole, perforation, or bore, whether round or otherwise; including an ear hole, the eye of a needle, and certain bodily openings.
The word can denote a perforation generally and is also used for specifically named openings; the cited bodily applications do not impose a general object restriction.
- Lane · entry 18705
خُرْبَةٌ
The socket of the hip where the head of the thigh-bone is inserted; the plural may also denote the lower extremities of the shoulder-blades.
An anatomical sense distinct from the general meaning of a hole or perforation.
- Lane · entry 18694
- Lane · entry 18705
خُرْبَةٌ
The loop of a leather water-bag by which it is suspended.
The sense is associated with the loop's round form.
- Lane · entry 18705
خُرْبَةٌ
A vice, fault, moral or religious unsoundness, disgraceful act, crime, or bad word or saying.
A moral and social evaluation, including a quality that induces suspicion or evil opinion.
- Lane · entry 18705
خُرْبَةٌ
A trial or affliction.
A distinct abstract use of the noun.
- Lane · entry 18705
خُرْبَةٌ
In the expression فَارٌّ بِخُرْبَةٍ, property carried away by a fugitive who intends unlawfully to appropriate it.
A conventional idiom describing flight with something for the purpose of taking possession of it unlawfully.
- Lane · entry 18705
خِرْبَةٌ
A state or condition of disgrace or shame; a shameful or disgraceful act.
The word may denote either the condition of one characterized by disgrace or a single act of that kind.
- Lane · entry 18706
خَرَبَةٌ
Baseness, vileness, disgrace, ignominy, or contemptibleness.
A moral and social sense distinct from physical ruin.
- Lane · entry 18707
خَرَبَةٌ
The part or parts of the body that are indecent to expose.
An anatomical and modesty-related term.
- Lane · entry 18707
خَرُّوبٌ
A kind of tree or plant, especially the carob or locust-tree; the name may also cover related wild or Syrian varieties.
A botanical collective noun with several described varieties.
- Lane · entry 18713
خَارِبٌ
A stealer of camels; by extension, a thief or robber.
The camel-stealing sense is treated as primary in the lexical evidence, with the broader sense extended from it.
- Lane · entry 18717
أَخْرَبُ
Having a slit, pierced, or perforated ear.
An adjective applied to a person or animal with an ear that has been slit or bored; the examples do not restrict the sense to a particular class of bearer.
- Lane · entry 18719
مُخْرِبَةٌ
An empty bee-hive from which honey has not been collected.
Attested in the phrase خَلِيَّةٌ مُخْرِبَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 18720
نُخْرُوبٌ
A hole or cell like those of hornets' nests; specifically a wax cell in which bees deposit honey.
A singular associated with the plural نَخَارِيبُ.
- Lane · entry 18723
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
For 59:2, the evidence records both a destructive interpretation and an interpretation involving departure or evacuation; both are retained as Quranic senses. It also records an alternate Form II reading, while the public form follows QAC's Form IV identity.