bane

[beyn]

noun

a person or thing that ruins or spoils: Gambling was the bane of his existence.
a deadly poison (often used in combination, as in the names of poisonous plants): wolfsbane; henbane.
death; destruction; ruin.

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

Origin of bane

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 Old English benn, Gothic banja wound

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for banes

ruination, undoing, disaster, downfall, torment, affliction, nuisance, curse, ruin, poison, venom, woe, blight, plague, burden, trouble, destruction, scourge, trial, calamity

Examples from the Web for banes

Contemporary Examples of banes

“What they are really doing is justifying their existence,” Banes said.
Special Forces’ $77M ‘Hustler’ Hits Back
Kevin Maurer
December 8, 2014
Shadman transferred millions to banks outside Afghanistan in 2013 to buy property to open a business in Dubai, according to Banes.
Special Forces’ $77M ‘Hustler’ Hits Back
Kevin Maurer
December 8, 2014

Historical Examples of banes

O'Rourke snorted disgustedly: "Lave it to Bhoynton to shpill the banes!"
Terry
Charles Goff Thomson
Leucorrhea is one of the banes of the modern girl and woman.
Woman
William J. Robinson
The next minute the mate was face to face with Captain Banes.
Old Gold
George Manville Fenn
The mate did not stir till he had seen Captain Banes on board.
Old Gold
George Manville Fenn
I shall give way to the extent of asking Captain Banes to let him go with us.
Old Gold
George Manville Fenn

British Dictionary definitions for banes

bane

noun

a person or thing that causes misery or distress (esp in the phrase bane of one's life)
something that causes death or destruction
1. a fatal poison
2. (in combination)ratsbane
archaic ruin or distress

Word Origin for bane

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

bane

noun

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

Word Origin and History for banes

bane

Old English bana "killer, slayer, murderer; the devil," from Proto-Germanic *banon, cognate with *banja- "wound" (cf. Old Frisian bona "murderer," Old Norse bani, Old High German bana "murder," Old English benn "wound," Gothic banja "stroke, wound"), from PIE root *gwhen- "to strike, kill, wound" (cf. Avestan banta "ill"). Modern sense of "that which causes ruin or woe" is from 1570s.