Converse of object

• prove: This will prove the undoing of the would-be white heir.

• spend: When New Labor was elected many people believed that their time in Government will be spent undoing the damage left by the last Government.

• involve: Given this involves undoing the evangelists ' editing the results are speculative to say the least.

• require: It was a done deal and one that required the undoing of lots of other deals in turn.

• risk: From this clash of positions has emerged a threat to the peace process that risks undoing the advances of the last decade.

• start: Then he moves back and starts undoing his tie.

Converse of subject

• remove: The fuse carriers are removed by undoing the small screw.

Adjective modifier

• own: A plum from one of these trees was my own undoing three years ago.

• ultimate: Luckily the very wickedness of these cartoon figures contained the seeds of their ultimate undoing.

• eventual: ITV Digital agreed to pay the Football League £ 315m for these matches in a three-year deal that was its eventual undoing.

• utter: The stay of my writings hath been my utter undoing.

• great: But the biggest worry is that the great benefit of the open-source approach is also its great undoing.

• complete: Death is the final insult, the twenty-first century man or woman's complete undoing.

Modifies a noun

• bolt: Most involve undoing bolts at the back of the washing machine and removing brackets and various packaging.

• mistake: Editing your Registry settings is not for the faint-hearted, because there is no undoing mistakes.

• everything: He seems intent on undoing everything Jeff Burnige has done, with the possible exception of the sales of Ward and Ifill.

Noun used with modifier

• self: Note how I leave out the fact that Saturn is posited in the house of self undoing.

• risk: This risks undoing much of the good work that has been achieved in recent years in curbing state subsidies.

• hand: On rail, he has been dealt a difficult hand undoing the mess created by his two immediate predecessors without saying as much.

Possessives

• vivisection: Dr. James Le Fanu, ' In sickness and in health: vivisection's undoing ' , Daily Telegraph, 23 November 2003.