bane

[ beyn ]
See synonyms for bane on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a person or thing that ruins or spoils: Gambling was the bane of his existence.

  2. a deadly poison (often used in combination, as in the names of poisonous plants): wolfsbane;henbane.

  1. death; destruction; ruin.

  2. Obsolete. that which causes death or destroys life: entrapped and drowned beneath the watery bane.

Origin of bane

1
First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English bana “slayer”; cognate with Old Norse bani “death, murderer,” Old Frisian bona “murder,” Old Saxon bano “murderer,” Old High German bano “slayer,” bana “death”; akin to Armenian ǰnǰel “to destroy,” Greek theínein “to strike,” Latin -fendere “to strike,” Persian zahr “poison,” Polish gonić “to pursue,” Sanskrit hánti “to strike”

Words Nearby bane

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use bane in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for bane (1 of 2)

bane1

/ (beɪn) /


noun
  1. a person or thing that causes misery or distress (esp in the phrase bane of one's life)

  2. something that causes death or destruction

    • a fatal poison

    • (in combination): ratsbane

  1. archaic ruin or distress

Origin of bane

1
Old English bana; related to Old Norse bani death, Old High German bano destruction, death

British Dictionary definitions for bane (2 of 2)

bane2

/ (ben, beɪn) /


noun
  1. a Scot word for bone

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012