Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A unit of currency equal to 1/100 of the primary unit of currency in Romania and Moldova.
  • transitive verb To prohibit (an action) or forbid the use of (something), especially by official decree: synonym: forbid.
  • transitive verb To refuse to allow (someone) to do something, go somewhere, or be a participant; exclude.
  • transitive verb South African Under the former system of apartheid, to deprive (a person suspected of illegal activity) of the right of free movement and association with others.
  • transitive verb Archaic To curse.
  • noun An excommunication or condemnation by church officials.
  • noun A prohibition imposed by law or official decree.
  • noun Censure, condemnation, or disapproval expressed especially by public opinion.
  • noun A summons to arms in feudal times.
  • noun Archaic A curse; an imprecation.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In feudal times: A public proclamation or edict; especially, a proclamation summoning to arms.
  • noun The array or body so summoned. See arrière-ban, 2.
  • noun A proclamation made at the head of a body of troops, or in the cantonments of an army, by beat of drum or sound of trumpet, to announce the appointment of an officer or the punishment of a soldier, to enforce discipline, etc.
  • noun A proclamation or notice given in a church of an intended marriage: generally used in the plural, bans, usually spelled banns (which see).
  • noun An edict of interdiction; a sentence of outlawry.
  • noun Interdiction; authoritative prohibition.
  • noun A formal ecclesiastical denunciation; curse; excommunication; anathema.
  • noun A malediction; expression of execration; curse.
  • noun A pecuniary mulct or penalty laid upon a delinquent for offending against a ban.
  • noun A mulct paid to the bishop, in addition to other penalties, for certain crimes connected with sacred things, chiefly sacrilege and perjury.
  • To summon; call out.
  • To anathematize; pronounce an ecclesiastical curse upon; place under a ban.
  • To curse; execrate.
  • To prohibit; interdict; proscribe.
  • To curse; utter curses or maledictions.
  • noun A title formerly given to the military chiefs who guarded the southern marches of Hungary (the Banat), but now only to the governor of Croatia and Slavonia, who is appointed by the emperor of Austria as king of Hungary, and is responsible to the landtag of Croatia and Slavonia.
  • noun A fine sort of muslin made in the East Indies from the leaf-stalk fibers of the banana.
  • noun A Rumanian coin and money of account: its value is that of the French centime.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To curse; to invoke evil upon.
  • transitive verb To forbid; to interdict.
  • noun A public proclamation or edict; a public order or notice, mandatory or prohibitory; a summons by public proclamation.
  • noun (Feudal & Mil.) A calling together of the king's (esp. the French king's) vassals for military service; also, the body of vassals thus assembled or summoned. In present usage, in France and Prussia, the most effective part of the population liable to military duty and not in the standing army.
  • noun Notice of a proposed marriage, proclaimed in church. See Banns (the common spelling in this sense).
  • noun An interdiction, prohibition, or proscription.
  • noun A curse or anathema.
  • noun A pecuniary mulct or penalty laid upon a delinquent for offending against a ban; as, a mulct paid to a bishop by one guilty of sacrilege or other crimes.
  • noun (German Hist.) an imperial interdict by which political rights and privileges, as those of a prince, city, or district, were taken away.
  • noun An ancient title of the warden of the eastern marches of Hungary; now, a title of the viceroy of Croatia and Slavonia.
  • noun A kind of fine muslin, made in the East Indies from the fiber of the banana leaf stalks.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To curse; to swear.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive, obsolete To summon; call out.
  • verb transitive To anathematise; pronounce an ecclesiastical curse upon; place under a ban.
  • verb transitive To curse; execrate.
  • verb transitive To prohibit; interdict; proscribe; forbid or block from participation.
  • verb intransitive To curse; utter curses or maledictions.
  • noun prohibition
  • noun A public proclamation or edict; a summons by public proclamation. Chiefly, in early use, a summons to arms.
  • noun The gathering of the (French) king's vassals for war; the whole body of vassals so assembled, or liable to be summoned; originally, the same as arrière-ban: in the 16th c., French usage created a distinction between ban and arrière-ban, for which see the latter word.
  • noun A title used in several states in central and south-eastern Europe between the 7th century and the 20th century.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Romanian, from Serbo-Croatian bān, lord, from Turkic bayan, very rich person : bay, rich (akin to Turkish bay, rich, gentleman) + -an, intensive suff.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English bannen, to summon, banish, curse, from Old English bannan, to summon, and from Old Norse banna, to prohibit, curse; see bhā- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English bannen, from Old English bannan ("to summon, command, proclaim, call out"), from Proto-Germanic *bannanan (“curse, forbid”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰa- (“to say”). Cognate with Dutch bannen ("to ban, exile, discard"), German bannen ("to exorcise, captivate, excommunicate"), Swedish banna ("to ban, scold"), Armenian բան (ban) and perhaps Albanian banoj ("to reside, dwell").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From South Slavic ban (cf. Serbo-Croatian bȃn), itself a borrowing from a Turkic language, probably from the Avar word bajan (""ruler of the horde"), a derivation of the Proto-Turkic *bāj- (“rich, noble”).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Romanian of uncertain origin, perhaps from Serbo-Croatian bân

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Banburismus; coined by Alan Turing.

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Examples

  • The book says that Reiss 'ban on Sinn Féin fundraising in the US following the murder by IRA members of Robert McCartney had the support of the British security services even though the Northern Ireland Office opposed the ban.

    Tony Blair's 'naivete' risked Northern Ireland peace deal 2010

  • A challenge to the Boy Scouts 'ban on gay troop leaders was dismissed, allowing the organization to continue that ban.

    CNN Transcript - Saturday Morning News: Supreme Court Ends Landmark Session - July 1, 2000 2000

  • Bloody, who still impersonate me just ignore. i had enough of those spam at blog ytds. but den again their reason stated there for the ban doesn't seems justify~ er banned account cant change password. my password are associated with my email, fb and whatever. dangerous lei huai everyday post 200+ post in hwz will trigger a ban~?

    www.hardwarezone.com.sg 2010

  • Gordon Brown's fire sale of public assets to raise £16bn men to get a divorce, ruling that Texas 'ban on same-sex marriage violates the men to get a divorce, ruling that Texas' ban on same-sex marriage

    WN.com - Articles related to Czech president signals he will accept 'Irish-style' guarantees 2009

  • Belarus 'ban on Russian pork imports not detrimental - watchdog Belarus' ban on Russian pork imports not detrimental - watchdog A Tochka-U short-range ballistic missile self-destructed on Thursday shortly after a practice launch at training grounds in northwestern Russia, the Defense Ministry said.

    RIA Novosti 2009

  • ; Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act; Defense of Marriage Act, abandoning his pledge to consider offering asylum to Haitian refugees; backing away from his most high-profile campaign issue: health care; reneging on his promise to "take a firm stand" against the armed forces 'ban on gays and lesbians; the invasion of Somalia; increasing the Pentagon budget by $25 billion; firing Jocelyn Elders; dumping Lani Guinier; renewing the sanctions on Iraq; ignoring genocide in Rwanda; passing a crime bill that gave us more cops, more prisons, and 58 more offenses punishable by death; the passage of the salvage logging rider; continuation of the use of methyl bromide; weakening of the Endangered Species Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act; lowering of grazing fees on land; subsidizing Florida's sugar industry; reversing the ban on the production and importation of PCBs; allowing the export of Alaskan oil; the telecommunications bill; unconditional support for the Israeli war machine, and not pardoning Leonard Peltier.

    Will President Obama feel the pressure? (LOL) 2008

  • Same-sex marriage will be legal in five states when New Hampshire begins issuing licenses Jan. 1, and passionate battles over whether that number will grow are being waged in the Texas 'ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional as she cleared the way for two gay Texas paved the way for a court battle over the state's ban on same-sex marriage when she ruled this week that two men married in another state can get ...

    WN.com - Articles related to Czech president signals he will accept 'Irish-style' guarantees 2009

  • Sarkozy, Public Policy, The American Prospect, The Economist, Turkey, government, politics Julian Sanchez on why a possible French burqa ban is a bad idea: After all, one of the reasons liberal democracies [...]

    Liberté, égalité, paternalisme 2009

  • I personally think that lifting the ban is a good thing, just for the hard-working people.

    NC Sunday-Hunting Bill Faces Deadline 2009

  • I personally think that lifting the ban is a good thing, just for the hard-working people.

    NC Sunday-Hunting Bill Faces Deadline 2009

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  • Prohibir, prohibición // WordReference

    October 19, 2007