bane

American  

[bayn] / beɪn /

noun

• banes
  plural

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.

3. death; destruction; ruin.

4. Obsolete. that which causes death or destroys life.

   entrapped and drowned beneath the watery bane.

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bane ¹ British  

/ 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

3. 1. a fatal poison

   2. ( in combination )

      ratsbane

4. archaic ruin or distress

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bane ² British  

/ beɪn, ben /

noun

1. a Scot word for bone

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• banes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of bane

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”

Explanation

The noun bane refers to anything that is a cause of harm, ruin, or death. But we often use it for things that aren't that bad, just feel like it. You might say mosquitoes are the bane of your existence. The source of this word is Middle and Old English bana, meaning "destroyer, murderer." The now obsolete meaning of "deadly poison" is seen in the names of poisonous plants such as wolfsbane and henbane. Although "bane of my existence" is a commonly heard phrase, there's something deliciously archaic about the word bane. It conjures up villages preyed upon by dragons, or witches adding one bane or another to a steaming kettle.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bane banes

He calls himself The Profiler and he has made it his mission to root out the bane of job seekers everywhere.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026

The arrangement was aimed at minimizing the number and cost of change orders, which are the bane of construction projects.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026

I make a lot of phone calls for stories, and meticulously transcribing those interviews has been the bane of my existence since I was in high school.

From Slate ● May 24, 2026

Wait times are the bane of the hospital service.

From MarketWatch ● May 1, 2026

"Ser Alliser's bane," he grunted, and two of his companions shared a laugh that Bran did not understand.

From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin

Summertime in Washington means not only heat and humidity, but includes the seemingly ever present possibility that those two seasonal banes can combine in creating thunder, lightning and a rapid rise in creeks.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 8, 2022

Though she clearly champions her subjects, Brewer doesn’t pull any punches about why the festival fell apart after seven years, thanks to those classic banes of arts nonprofits, volunteer burnout and the failure to professionalize.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 1, 2020

But we know that paperwork was one of the banes of the housing crisis.

From Slate ● Nov. 10, 2016

One of the banes of commercial existence has been that Internet domain names can be registered by anyone, in a flash.

From Forbes ● Jan. 23, 2015

It can be imagined how Greece rang with the praises of the young man who had cleared the land of these banes to travelers.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton