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 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

²

/ 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

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 The amendment, enforced by the Volstead Act, was repealed by another amendment to the Constitution in 1933.

Notes

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.

Derived Forms

• ˌprohiˈbitionary, adjective
• ˌProhiˈbitionist, noun

Other Words From

• prohi·bition·ary adjective
• anti·prohi·bition adjective noun
• nonpro·hi·bition noun
• prepro·hi·bition 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 perimeter for parking prohibitions and street closures is larger than normal and will be in effect for a longer period.

From Washington Post

State rules adopted last April in response to the investigation had placed stricter limits on the use of seclusion — including a prohibition on isolating students behind a locked door — but did not ban prone restraints.

From ProPublica

Officials have cited China’s recent history of vaccine scandals as a reason why it continues to enforce the prohibition.

From Fortune

The trades prompted renewed calls for stricter regulation of congressional stock ownership, with proposals ranging from a ban on trading stock while in office to an outright prohibition on stock ownership for elected officials.

From Washington Post

Oregon spent about $375 million on drug prohibition in that year.

From No Straight News

The trade flouts a March 2014 prohibition on all exports of weaponry and military equipment to Moscow.

From The Daily Beast

By the time Prohibition was on the menu, we were very much an “alcoholic Republic.”

From The Daily Beast

The trend is clear: Marijuana prohibition is coming to an end.

From The Daily Beast

While the end of prohibition brought an end to the alcohol black market in America, the ubiquity of it brought its own problems.

From The Daily Beast

After the end of Prohibition in 1933, alcohol was once again legal throughout Arkansas.

From The Daily Beast

Now, the whole Northwest groaned beneath a cast-iron prohibition law at that time, and for some years thereafter.

From Project Gutenberg

In 1903 this prohibition to foreigners was disputed by a British bank-clerk who arrived in Manila for a foreign bank.

From Project Gutenberg

The inferior quality of this growth at length caused its prohibition by law, as described elsewhere in this work.

From Project Gutenberg

In 1914, the General Assembly voted for a state-wide law providing for the prohibition of liquor.

From Project Gutenberg

These rules might be of any kind, including (subject to exceptions) a total prohibition, then or at any future time.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

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

More About Prohibition

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.

What was Prohibition?

Anti-alcohol advocacy, formally called the temperance movement, was popular in the United States in the early 19th century. Largely created and run by religious women, the temperance movement was a response to the perceived role that alcoholism and drunkenness played in creating crime, poverty, and trouble among families. The movement grew through the 19th century, gaining footholds in traditionally Protestant areas like New England, until 1918, when the Eighteenth Amendment (which is often called Prohibition and was enforced through the Volstead Act) was ratified. Prohibition effectively lasted from 1920–1933, and is so called because it prohibited (banned) making, selling, or transporting alcohol.

Many Americans disagreed with Prohibition, and many ignored the laws and restrictions. While alcohol consumption did fall as a result of liquor becoming more difficult to obtain, Prohibition also spawned a new area of organized crime in which bootlegging (making, transporting, and selling alcohol illegally) rose in popularity. This business could be carried out locally, but it was largely controlled by the mob, who created a national bootlegging network. Famed gangster Al Capone is said to have made $60 million every year from his bootlegging exploits. Many people also made their own alcohol from scratch, creating homemade beer or moonshine.

Prohibition was eventually repealed in 1933, amidst the Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt saw the possibilities in creating an influx of jobs through reviving the liquor industry, and actually campaigned on a platform that involved repealing Prohibition. Roosevelt easily won the election and repealed Prohibition, to much celebration.

Examples of Prohibition

“In an age when individual freedom is all, it comes as something of a shock to reflect that in the world’s most prosperous and dynamic country the prohibition of alcohol lasted for almost 14 years. Today we often think of Prohibition as a deluded experiment, instinctively associating it with images of Al Capone, the mafia, and the Valentine’s Day Massacre. In fact, the campaign to prohibit alcohol had been deeply rooted in Anglo-American society for some two centuries.”
—Dominic Sandbrook, “How Prohibition backfired and gave America an era of gangsters and speakeasies,” The Guardian, August 25, 2012

“When the 21st Amendment was ratified on this day, Dec. 5, in 1933, it ended Prohibition 13 years, 10 months, and 19 days after it began.”
—Jennifer Latson, “A Toast to the End of Prohibition,” Time, December 5, 2014

Note

This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage.