prohibition

[proh-uh-bish-uhn]

noun

1. the act of prohibiting.

2. the legal prohibiting of the manufacture and sale of alcoholic drinks for common consumption.

3. Often Prohibition the period (1920–33) when the Eighteenth Amendment was in force and alcoholic beverages could not legally be manufactured, transported, or sold in the United States.

4. a law or decree that forbids.

   Synonyms: interdiction

Prohibition

¹

/ ˌprəʊɪˈbɪʃən /

noun

1. the period (1920–33) when the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors was banned by constitutional amendment in the US

prohibition

²

/ ˌprəʊɪˈbɪʃən /

noun

1. the act of prohibiting or state of being prohibited

2. an order or decree that prohibits

3. (sometimes capital) (esp in the US) a policy of legally forbidding the manufacture, transportation, sale, or consumption of alcoholic beverages except for medicinal or scientific purposes

4. law an order of a superior court (in Britain the High Court) forbidding an inferior court to determine a matter outside its jurisdiction

Prohibition

1. The outlawing of alcoholic beverages nationwide from 1920 to 1933, under an amendment to the Constitution. The amendment, enforced by the Volstead Act, was repealed by another amendment to the Constitution in 1933.

Prohibition is often mentioned in discussions of how much social change can be brought about through law, because alcohol was widely, though illegally, produced and sold during Prohibition; it was served privately in the White House under President Warren Harding, for example.

Many use the example of Prohibition to argue that more harm than good comes from the enactment of laws that are sure to be widely disobeyed.

Some states and localities (called “dry”) had outlawed the production and sale of alcohol before the Prohibition amendment was adopted. The repealing amendment allowed individual states and localities to remain “dry,” and some did for many years.

Other Word Forms

• prohibitionary adjective
• antiprohibition adjective
• nonprohibition noun
• preprohibition noun
• Prohibitionist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of prohibition¹

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English, from Latin prohibitiōn-, stem of prohibitiō “prevention”; equivalent to prohibit + -ion

Example Sentences

The deal, she said, likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act’s prohibition on government agencies from acting in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner, and didn’t comply with requirements in the Internal Revenue Code.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The plan says that there would be no prohibition against Ukraine joining the EU, a multiyear accession process Kyiv has begun.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

“He came by the office and assured us that there is an across-the-board prohibition on hate symbols, including swastikas and nooses,” Underwood said in a video on X.

Read more on Salon

“These practices, if substantiated, undermine public confidence in the neutrality of the City Controller’s office and violate clear prohibitions on using public assets for campaign advantage,” Hall said in his complaint.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

"Many women and elders say prohibition has improved household finances, children's education, and nutrition. But it is undeniable that illegal trade continues," he said.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• constraint 
• embargo 
• exclusion 
• injunction 
• prevention 
• proscription 
• restriction 
• taboo 
• veto 

When To Use

When was Prohibition?

Prohibition refers to a period in American history when the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcoholic beverages was made illegal. The law, which was created by the Eighteenth Amendment (ratified in 1918) to the United States Constitution and subsequently reversed by the Twenty-first Amendment (ratified in 1933), proved largely unpopular.