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
-
was banishingprogressive
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were banishingprogressive
-
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:
We should banish it, because I’ve learned the hard way that it’s too abstract.
From Slate ● Apr. 20, 2026
In 2005, an NBA dress code asked players to dress "business casual" while representing the sport - an attempt to banish streetwear from the league.
From BBC ● Apr. 4, 2026
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 ● Feb. 18, 2026
But on Tuesday, Shiffrin finally has a chance to banish that dread—with some help from a newly crowned Olympic champion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 9, 2026
“But you can’t just banish them?” he asked her.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
Mary appears to have a form of treatment-resistant schizophrenia, until chemotherapy, following a diagnosis of lymphoma, banishes her psychiatric symptoms.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 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
The midnight curfew imposed on that tour lasted more than four years until it was banished in 2022.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
It was a note of caution that showed questions about the Games' future had not been banished as the 2026 Games closed on Sunday evening.
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026
Whatever engine droning and snoozing you might remember from earlier CVT systems has been banished to the Phantom Zone.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
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
He pointedly banished any hint of rancor from his voice, even though he knew he wasn’t going to like her answer.
From "The Serpent King" by Jeff Zentner
This could be seen as a halfway house, whereby the independent disciplinary commission dodges the nuclear option of banishing Southampton from the play-offs but still applies a sporting sanction.
From BBC ● May 13, 2026
Rickover likened himself to Attila the Hun and had young officers conduct job interviews on chairs with specially shortened front legs, banishing them to a closet if they disappointed him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 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
She has performed a kind of emergency triage, banishing the infected to save the well.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
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.
