banishment

[ ban-ish-muhnt ]

noun

1. expulsion from a country, place, or position by authoritative decree, or the state of having been expelled:

   A royal proclamation ordered the banishment of all priests from the city.

   The team’s wide receiver flunked another drug test and will now be subject to a one-year banishment, according to league sources.

2. the act of driving away, or the state of having been sent away or driven out:

   We strive for the preservation of peace and the banishment of tyranny and slavery from the earth.

   The decades after World War II were marked not by disarmament and the banishment of war but by ceaseless confrontation and the division of the world into hostile blocs.

Other Words From

• non·ban·ish·ment noun
• pro·ban·ish·ment noun
• self-ban·ish·ment noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of banishment¹

banish ( def ) + -ment ( def )

Example Sentences

I arrived at a haunted lot where I had to banish ghostly entities.

From Washington Post

I just stopped talking to everybody because I didn’t know who to trust because I had been banished.

From Washington Post

Suddenly, social media and other digital diversions are no longer a parenting scourge, but a blessing, as we watch our children shut in all week, banished from schools and parks.

From Time

While quarantined, she was seemingly powerless to challenge her banishment to a tent in Newark.

From The Daily Beast

Second offenses would be punished by banishment…that could be appealed after one year.

From The Daily Beast

Hard to say if the banishment will make any impact on the outcome on the medal stand.

From The Daily Beast

Conservatives know deep down that they have to toe the line or risk banishment.

From The Daily Beast

“I truly thought my banishment would only last for a month or so,” she writes.

From The Daily Beast

George I assented to the bill for the banishment of bishop Atterbury, whose great virtues are now remembered.

From Project Gutenberg

The first banishment for contravention of this regulation took place on January 6, 1905.

From Project Gutenberg

Hadria was incorrigibly flippant about the banishment of important local subjects.

From Project Gutenberg

He forbade his subjects, under pain of banishment, to rake up the old causes of dispute.

From Project Gutenberg

In the fourth, they provide banishment, and death in case of return, for Jesuits and Popish priests of every denomination.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• deportation
• expulsion