ban

1 of 3

verb

ˈban 

banned; banning; bans

transitive verb

1

: to prohibit especially by legal means

ban discrimination

Is smoking banned in all public buildings?

also : to prohibit the use, performance, or distribution of

ban a book

ban a pesticide

2

: bar entry 2 sense 3c

banned from the U.N.

3

archaic : curse

It is a hard fate … to be banned … by the world, only because one has sought to be wiser than the world is.

—Edward Bulwer Lytton

intransitive verb

archaic : to utter curses or condemnations

The serious world will scold and ban …

—Joseph Rodman Drake

ban

2 of 3

noun (1)

plural bans

1

: legal or formal prohibition

a ban on beef exports

2

: censure or condemnation especially through social pressure

was under ban for her political views

3

religion : anathema, excommunication

under the pope's ban

4

: malediction, curse

uttered a ban upon his enemies

5

: the summoning in feudal times of the king's vassals for military service

ban

3 of 3

noun (2)

ˈbän 

plural bani ˈbä-(ˌ)nē 

: a monetary subunit of the leu see leu at Money Table

Synonyms

Verb

• bar
• enjoin
• forbid
• interdict
• outlaw
• prohibit
• proscribe

Noun (1)

• anathema
• curse
• execration
• imprecation
• malediction
• malison
• winze [Scottish]

Examples of ban in a Sentence

Verb

The school banned that book for many years.

The city has banned smoking in all public buildings.

The drug was banned a decade ago.

The use of cell phones is banned in the restaurant.

Recent Examples on the Web

Verb

For example, New York bans pit bulls in Housing Authority properties, and San Fransisco only allows them if spayed or neutered. —USA TODAY, 26 Apr. 2024

Last week, the California Senate Public Safety Committee rejected a bipartisan bill banning camping in certain public places if shelter space is available. —Michael Smolens, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Apr. 2024

Many countries vividly – and bitterly – remember how travelers from numerous African countries were banned after Botswana and South Africa shared news about the discovery of Omicron, which was then a new strain of COVID. —Gabrielle Emanuel, NPR, 26 Apr. 2024

In July 2023, a lower court in the city of Isfahan finally sentenced Salehi to over six years in prison, with a U.S. State Department document also saying he was banned from making music or singing for two years. —Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 26 Apr. 2024

Rival billboard companies claim the signs would violate state regulations banning commercial advertising close to a federal highway like Interstate 395, while in-house promotions for Arsht and PAMM exhibits could remain. —Douglas Hanks, Miami Herald, 25 Apr. 2024

The state could look at banning the application of fertilizer or manure in areas of the state where the groundwater is close to the surface, or porous rock makes the groundwater ripe for contamination, advocates have suggested. —Laura Schulte, Journal Sentinel, 25 Apr. 2024

Shortly before Iqbal, the Barnard student from Seattle, was arrested, she was given an interim suspension, meaning that she was banned from campus, effective immediately. —Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker, 25 Apr. 2024

TikTok has previously fended off efforts to ban it by citing the First Amendment rights of its users. —Cecilia Kang, New York Times, 24 Apr. 2024

Noun

In these last days before the six-week ban, appointments have been filling up and staff have been working overtime. —NPR, 27 Apr. 2024

California’s state house previously passed a ban on selling weight-loss supplements to minors that was vetoed by the governor, but lawmakers there are considering a new version. —Maysoon Khan, Fortune, 26 Apr. 2024

Again, the Fish & Game Commission is recommending a ban on the live import permits for the market frogs, but not the market turtles, inexplicably. —Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 26 Apr. 2024

Soon official calendars were flooded with meeting requests from supporters of the ban and also from opponents, which included tobacco companies, convenience stores and gas station retailers that projected that the ban would cost them billions of dollars in sales. —Noah Weiland, New York Times, 26 Apr. 2024

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in past cases that such bans can’t be enforced if shelter beds or other housing are unavailable. —Michael Smolens, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Apr. 2024

Meanwhile, TikTok plans to file a lawsuit over the ban in federal court. —Jo Ling Kent, CBS News, 26 Apr. 2024

In the political sphere, President Biden signed a law a TikTok ban — inserted by the U.S. Congress into a $95 foreign aid package — that will force the company out of the hands of its Chinese owner, Bytedance. —Glenn Peoples, Billboard, 25 Apr. 2024

Conversations about the bill, about the ban, about the divestment have been happening for the last couple of months. —Wired Staff, WIRED, 25 Apr. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Verb

Middle English bannen "to summon (troops) by proclamation, assemble (an armed force), gather (arms), curse, anathematize, prohibit, outlaw," going back to Old English bannan (class VII strong verb) "to summon by proclamation, call to arms," going back to Germanic *bannan- "to speak formally, call on, order" (whence also Old Frisian bonna, banna "to call upon, command, place under a ban," Old Saxon & Old High German bannan "to summon, order," Old Norse banna "to prohibit, curse"), going back to Indo-European *b^ho-n-h₂-e-, presumed o-grade intensive derivative (with gemination from a present formation with *-nu̯-e-?) from a verbal base *b^heh₂- "speak, say," whence also Latin for, fārī "to speak, say," Greek phēmí, phánai, Armenian bay "(s/he) says, speaks," and with extensions Eastern Church Slavic baju, bajati "to tell (stories), cast a spell, cure," Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian bȁjati "to tell tales, practice sorcery," Sanskrit bhánati "(s/he) speaks, says, (it) sounds"

Note: The senses "curse, anathematize, prohibit," etc., in Middle English are not attested in Old English and are generally thought to reflect influence of the cognate Old Norse verb. The English verb has also been influenced in sense by Medieval Latin bannīre and Old French banir (see banish). — The reconstruction of the source of Germanic *bannan- in Indo-European terms is from G. Kroonen, Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Brill, 2013), though any number of alternative reconstructions are possible that result in the new verbal base *bann-. Indo-European *b^heh₂- "speak, say" is phonetically identical with and probably a semantic offshoot of the base *b^heh₂- "shine, give light, appear" (see fantasy entry 1); the presumed sense in shift would be "shine, give light" > "make bright, illuminate" > "make clear, clarify" > "speak, say."

Noun (1)

Middle English ban, bane, banne "proclamation by an authority, summons, one of the marriage banns, troop of warriors summoned by their overlord," in part noun derivative of bannen "to summon (troops) by proclamation," in part borrowed from Anglo-French ban, baan "proclamation, edict, jurisdiction, one of the marriage banns" (also continental Old French, "summons to arms by a lord, proclamation commanding or prohibiting an action"), going back to Old Low Franconian *banna-, going back to Germanic (whence also Old Frisian bon, ban, bān "order commanding or prohibiting under pain of a fine, authority, summoning of the army, banishment," Old Saxon bann "command, summons, fine, excommunication," Old High German ban "command by an authority, order, legal extension or withdrawal of protection"), noun derivative of *bannan- "to speak formally, call on, order" — more at ban entry 1

Note: The Middle English noun may also continue Old English gebann, gebenn "edict, proclamation, command," a derivative of gebannan, similar in meaning to unprefixed bannan. The negative senses "prohibition, condemnation," etc., though present to a limited degree already in early Medieval Latin, do not appear in English (or French) until the sixteenth century, and are in part derived from the verb ban entry 1. The Germanic etymon appears in Latin as bannus (or bannum), from the sixth century in Gregory of Tours' Historia Francorum, and the seventh century in the Lex Ripuaria, the laws of the Ripuarian Franks; the Latin word went on to develop a broad range of meanings (compare the entries in J.F. Niermeyer, Mediae Latinitatis lexicon minus and Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources).

Noun (2)

Romanian, money, coin, small coin

First Known Use

Verb

12th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 3

Noun (1)

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 5

Noun (2)

1880, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing ban

• arrière-ban
• test ban
• trigger ban

Kids Definition

ban

1 of 2 verb

ˈban 

banned; banning

1

: to forbid especially by law or social pressure

2

: bar entry 2 sense 4

ban

2 of 2 noun

1

: curse entry 1 sense 1

2

: an official order forbidding something

Legal Definition

ban

1 of 2 transitive verb

banned; banning

: to prohibit or forbid especially by legal means (as by statute or order)

ban solicitation

also : to prohibit the use, performance, or distribution of

legislation to ban DDT

ban

2 of 2 noun

: prohibition especially by statute or order

a ban on automatic weapons