banish
Americanverb (used with object)
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banishes,
present (3rd person singular)
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banished,
past participle, past
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banishing
present participle
-
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
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to expel from a place, esp by an official decree as a punishment
-
to drive away
to banish gloom
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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banishsimple
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banishessimple
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have banishedperfect
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has banishedperfect
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am banishingprogressive
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are banishingprogressive
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is banishingprogressive
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have been banishingperfect progressive
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has been banishingperfect progressive
Past
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banishedsimple
-
had banishedperfect
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was banishingprogressive
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were banishingprogressive
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had been banishingperfect progressive
Future
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
Explanation
To banish is to get rid of. Think very carefully before you banish someone from your group. Someday, you may want that person around again. Banish rhymes with vanish, which is exactly what happens when you banish someone. Suppose a king, angry with some of his subjects, banishes them. They have to leave the kingdom and vanish — not just go home and wait for the king to change his mind. Banish comes from the Old French word bannir, which means "proclaim as an outlaw." It is serious and absolute. You can see the word ban in banish, but to ban something is not as harsh as banishing it.
Vocabulary lists containing banish
100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know
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Essential Academic Vocabulary for Middle School Students, List 6
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"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act III
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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.
See Examples For:
But the real frustration will come from the fact Spurs had the opportunity to banish all relegation fears here and were simply not good enough to take advantage.
From BBC ● May 19, 2026
We should banish it, because I’ve learned the hard way that it’s too abstract.
From Slate ● Apr. 20, 2026
Peter Stolypin, one of the most accomplished Russian statesmen of the era, loathed Rasputin but couldn’t convince the czar to banish him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
Staring at the prospect of letting another seemingly insurmountable lead slip, Arsenal are desperate to banish those demons, having grappled with the tag over the past two decades.
From BBC ● Apr. 13, 2026
“It’s Ares! They mean to banish him!” gasped Luxa as the two of them sprinted down the Corridors.
From "Gregor the Overlander" by Suzanne Collins
Daddy forces them to hand him their company and banishes Jimmy to the Latitude mailroom.
From Salon ● May 29, 2026
This major win, surely, banishes such a notion.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2024
It banishes darkness, conveys telecommunications signals between continents and makes visible the invisible, from faraway galaxies to the smallest bacterium.
From Science Daily ● May 23, 2024
Pierre plays the cruel Duke Frederick, who banishes his brother, among others, to the Forest of Arden in this tale of camouflage, love and self discovery.
From New York Times ● Aug. 24, 2022
And then something happens that banishes even that mystery from my head.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
Orpheus tries to rescue his love, but his faith in her is tested on their return to the top — if he turns back to see if she’s there, she’ll be banished to Hadestown forever.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
The question, in the coming days, weeks and months is how much do we hear in public from those banished Starmerites, as Andy Burnham's government sets out its stall.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
Its pendant is a statue of Thomas Jefferson with the Declaration of Independence, banished from New York’s City Council Chamber in 2021 because of what the exhibition calls “his history as an enslaver.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
Now she has been banished along with fruit and vegetable sellers to a vacant lot with lower foot traffic, her turnover roughly halving as a result.
From Barron's ● Jun. 2, 2026
You banished me to the old folks’ home for a week, and you want to talk to me about “fair”? Steven, you know we had to take care of your brother.
From "Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie" by Jordan Sonnenblick
Five years later, Madison Square Garden was planted atop it, banishing sunlight and driving commuters into a subterranean maze of passageways.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026
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 ● Feb. 19, 2026
The singer said she suspects she’ll be battling that toxic perfectionism for the rest of her life, but she’s gotten better at banishing it to the backseat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 2, 2025
In case you’ve forgotten where “Stranger Things” left us, Vecna revealed that Eleven accidentally created him by banishing him to the Upside Down.
From Salon ● Nov. 24, 2025
Not only were they all grateful for her help in banishing illnesses, but they insisted on paying her.
From Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack
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.
