banish

verb

ban·​ish ˈba-nish 

banished; banishing; banishes

transitive verb

1

: to require by authority to leave a country

a dictator who banishes anyone who opposes him

2

: to drive out or remove from a home or place of usual resort or continuance

He was banished from court.

banishing her from the sport

The reporters were banished to another room.

3

: to clear away : dispel

His discovery banishes anxiety …

—Stringfellow Barr

banisher noun

plural banishers

banishment

ˈba-nish-mənt 

noun

plural banishments

… fighting is punished with banishment from the game.

—Joe LaPointe

Synonyms of banish

• exile
• relegate
• deport
• evict

Choose the Right Synonym for banish

banish, exile, deport, transport mean to remove by authority from a state or country.

banish implies compulsory removal from a country not necessarily one's own.

banished for seditious activities

exile may imply compulsory removal or an enforced or voluntary absence from one's own country.

a writer who exiled himself for political reasons

deport implies sending out of the country a noncitizen who has illegally entered or whose presence is judged adverse to the public welfare.

migrants may be deported

transport implies sending a convicted criminal to an overseas penal colony.

a convict who was transported to Australia

Examples of banish in a Sentence

He was banished for life.

The dictator banished anyone who opposed him.

Recent Examples on the Web

In wartime Los Angeles, with Pearl Harbor still fresh in people's minds, and 120,000 Japanese Americans banished to internment camps, paranoia ran deep. —David Alvarado, Time, 15 Dec. 2025

Here, Vater and Mary Phillips, Head of Native Plant Habitat Strategy/Certifications at the National Wildlife Federation, share all the details on the right time (and right way) to banish your weeds—and keep them at bay during your next vacation. —Patricia Shannon, Southern Living, 12 Dec. 2025

Despite growing awareness of the connection between tanning beds and skin cancer, devotees continue to use them to banish a wintry pallor. —Emily Kay Votruba, EverydayHealth.com, 12 Dec. 2025

George Clarke is still competing for the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing crown and Niko Omilana took part on Celebrity Traitors, although he was banished first. —Max Goldbart, Deadline, 8 Dec. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English banysshen "to condemn by proclamation to leave a country, exile, outlaw, expel, drive away," borrowed from Anglo-French baniss-, stem of banir "to proclaim, (of a king or noble) summon by a call to arms, condemn by proclamation to leave a country, exclude" (also continental Old French), going back to a Gallo-Romance adaptation of Old Low Franconian *bannjan, verbal derivative of *banna- "summon to arms by a lord" — more at ban entry 2

Note: Compare Medieval Latin bannīre, bandīre "to summon by public authority and compel performance of something" (this sense is already in the seventh-century Lex Ripuaria, the laws of the Ripuarian Franks), "to require by public authority, place under a prohibition, excommunicate." Compare also bandit.

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for banish

• clannish
• mannish
• spanish
• vanish

Kids Definition

banish

verb

ban·​ish ˈban-ish 

1

: to force to leave a country

2

: to drive away

banish fears

banishment

-mənt 

noun