banish
Americanverb (used with object)
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to expel from or relegate to a country or place by authoritative decree; condemn to exile.
He was banished to Devil's Island.
- Synonyms:
- deport, outlaw, expatriate, exile
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to compel to depart; send, drive, or put away.
to banish sorrow.
verb
-
to expel from a place, esp by an official decree as a punishment
-
to drive away
to banish gloom
Other Word Forms
- banisher noun
- banishment noun
- self-banished adjective
- unbanished adjective
Etymology
Origin of banish
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English banisshen, from Anglo-French, Old French baniss-, long stem of banir, from unrecorded Frankish bannjan “to proclaim,” akin to ban 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Moments later Cronin was grabbing the kid’s shirt and leading him to the baseline, where he ordered an assistant coach to remove him from the court area and banish him to the locker room.
From Los Angeles Times
South Korea has an unofficial moratorium on capital punishment -- the last prisoners were executed in 1997 -- with a death sentence effectively banishing Yoon to life behind bars.
From Barron's
In the space of 100 seconds on the slopes of Cortina, the greatest skier of all time had banished eight years of Olympic misery, nightmares, and self-doubt to become a champion again.
It’s his inability to flatter with formulaic language that ultimately causes him to be banished from Rome.
“Why would you think we’re shadows? I thought they were all banished.”
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
