definitions

bane

[ beyn ]
/ beɪn /
|

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.

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RELATED WORDS

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

Nearby words

bandy, bandy legs, bandy-bandy, bandy-legged, bandywallop, bane, baneberry, baneful, banefully, banerjea, banerjea, sir surendranath

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. 2019

Examples from the Web for banes

British Dictionary definitions for banes (1 of 2)

bane

1
/ (beɪn) /

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

British Dictionary definitions for banes (2 of 2)

bane

2
/ (ben, beɪn) /

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

n.

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.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper