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What Is A “Ban”?The word ban gets bandied about a lot these days, from vegan brides wanting to ban meat-eaters from their weddings to plastic straws getting banned from coffee drinks. On an individual level, banning things we don’t like or agree with can be an easy way to rid them from our life. But, zoom out to a governmental and societal level, and bans become much more complex. What …
RELATED WORDS
Nearby words
banquet room, banqueteer, banqueting, banquette, banquo, bans, bansela, banshee, banstead, bant, bantam
Can be confused
banns bansDefinition for bans (2 of 4)
ban
1[ ban ]
/ bæn /
verb (used with object), banned, ban·ning.
to prohibit, forbid, or bar; interdict: to ban nuclear weapons; The dictator banned all newspapers and books that criticized his regime.
Archaic.
- to pronounce an ecclesiastical curse upon.
- to curse; execrate.
noun
Origin of ban
1before 1000; Middle English bannen, Old English bannan to summon, proclaim; cognate with Old Norse banna to curse (probably influencing some senses of ME word), Old High German bannan; akin to Latin fārī to speak, Sanskrit bhanati (he) speaks
SYNONYMS FOR ban
ANTONYMS FOR ban
1 allow.
Related forms
ban·na·ble, adjectiveun·banned, adjectiveDefinition for bans (3 of 4)
banns
or bans
[ banz ]
/ bænz /
noun (used with a plural verb) Ecclesiastical.
notice of an intended marriage, given three times in the parish church of each of the betrothed.
any public announcement of a proposed marriage, either verbal or written and made in a church or by church officials.
Origin of banns
Can be confused
banns bansDefinition for bans (4 of 4)
ban
2[ ban ]
/ bæn /
noun
a public proclamation or edict.
bans, Ecclesiastical. banns.
(in the feudal system)
- the summoning of the sovereign's vassals for military service.
- the body of vassals summoned.
Origin of ban
21200–50; Middle English, aphetic variant of iban, Old English gebann proclamation, summons to arms (derivative of bannan ban1), influenced in some senses by Old French ban, from same Germanic base
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for bans
British Dictionary definitions for bans (1 of 5)
British Dictionary definitions for bans (2 of 5)
banns
bans
/ (bænz) /
pl n
the public declaration of an intended marriage, usually formally announced on three successive Sundays in the parish churches of both the betrothed
forbid the banns to raise an objection to a marriage announced in this way
Word Origin for banns
C14: plural of bann proclamation; see ban 1
British Dictionary definitions for bans (3 of 5)
ban
1/ (bæn) /
verb bans, banning or banned
noun
Word Origin for ban
Old English bannan to proclaim; compare Old Norse banna to forbid, Old High German bannan to command
British Dictionary definitions for bans (4 of 5)
ban
2/ (bæn) /
noun
(in feudal England) the summoning of vassals to perform their military obligations
Word Origin for ban
C13: from Old French ban, of Germanic origin; related to Old High German ban command, Old Norse bann ban 1
British Dictionary definitions for bans (5 of 5)
ban
3/ (bæn) /
noun plural bani (ˈbɑːnɪ)
a monetary unit of Romania and Moldova worth one hundredth of a leu
Word Origin for ban
from Romanian, from Serbo-Croat bān lord
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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