ban

1 of 3

verb

banned; banning; bans

transitive verb

1
: to prohibit especially by legal means
ban discrimination
Is smoking banned in all public buildings?
also : to prohibit the use, performance, or distribution of
ban a book
ban a pesticide
2
: bar entry 2 sense 3c
banned from the U.N.
3
archaic : curse
It is a hard fate … to be banned … by the world, only because one has sought to be wiser than the world is.Edward Bulwer Lytton

intransitive verb

archaic : to utter curses or condemnations
The serious world will scold and banJoseph Rodman Drake

ban

2 of 3

noun (1)

plural bans
1
: legal or formal prohibition
a ban on beef exports
2
: censure or condemnation especially through social pressure
was under ban for her political views
3
religion : anathema, excommunication
under the pope's ban
4
: malediction, curse
uttered a ban upon his enemies
5
: the summoning in feudal times of the king's vassals for military service

ban

3 of 3

noun (2)

plural bani ˈbä-(ˌ)nē How to pronounce ban (audio)
: a monetary subunit of the leu see leu at Money Table

Examples of ban in a Sentence

Verb The school banned that book for many years. The city has banned smoking in all public buildings. The drug was banned a decade ago. The use of cell phones is banned in the restaurant.
Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
This used to be more common until the 1980s, when legislation was introduced to ban taking off with any kind of leak in an aircraft’s toilet system. Julia Buckley, CNN, 9 Mar. 2024 The other bills signed by Inslee last year included one banning the sale of certain semi-automatic rifles and another imposing a 10-day waiting period on firearms purchases. Gene Johnson, Quartz, 9 Mar. 2024 Former President Donald Trump attempted to ban TikTok through executive order, but the courts blocked the action after TikTok sued, arguing such actions would violate free speech and due process rights. Kevin Freking, Fortune, 8 Mar. 2024 The decision to ban visitors from these blocks comes as the city has dealt with overcrowding and misbehaving tourists, the AP noted. Alison Fox, Travel + Leisure, 8 Mar. 2024 Other late-adds that were removed from Senate Bill 256 because of that rule include language addressing the Medicaid shortfall and resulting cuts impacting families caring for children with medically complex conditions; and language banning sister city deals with U.S. adversaries like China. Kayla Dwyer, The Indianapolis Star, 8 Mar. 2024 The bill would not directly ban TikTok but would force its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app or face restrictions that could bar it from U.S. app stores. Drew Harwell, Washington Post, 8 Mar. 2024 Some city and state governments have banned TikTok from being installed on government devices, and last year Montana became the first state to actually ban the app — though that ban was blocked by a judge and is currently making its way through the courts. Mia Sato, The Verge, 7 Mar. 2024 In 2022, Congress banned the app from being downloaded on government devices. Caitlin Yilek, CBS News, 7 Mar. 2024
Noun
Chapter 6 2000 — 2010 Divisions over diversity State bans spur pushback across the country and keep affirmative action on the ballot. Emma Kumer, Washington Post, 9 Mar. 2024 One of the speakers was a Republican legislator in Texas who, in addition to being an advocate for loosening land-use regulations, has pushed for a near-total ban on abortions. Conor Dougherty, New York Times, 9 Mar. 2024 Michigan has had a ban on compensated surrogacy parenting since 1988. Arpan Lobo, Detroit Free Press, 7 Mar. 2024 Dolan's opponents have attacked him for voting against Ohio's ban on most abortions and supporting certain gun reforms. Haley Bemiller, The Enquirer, 7 Mar. 2024 The ban would have affected four stores: two Uncle Bill's Pet Center locations, Happiness is Pets and Puppygram Indiana. Rory Appleton, The Indianapolis Star, 7 Mar. 2024 Even Congress, noting the Dickey Amendment was not an all-out ban, appropriated $25 million for gun research in late 2019, split between the CDC — whose imperative is to research public health issues — and the National Institutes of Health. Christine Spolar, NPR, 6 Mar. 2024 The recent ban on FKA twigs’ Calvin Klein ad has been partially lifted in the United Kingdom, BBC News reports. Madison Bloom, Pitchfork, 6 Mar. 2024 San Francisco’s 2019 ban on face recognition was followed by about two dozen other cities, many of which also added new oversight mechanisms for police surveillance. Lauren Goode, WIRED, 6 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ban.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Verb

Middle English bannen "to summon (troops) by proclamation, assemble (an armed force), gather (arms), curse, anathematize, prohibit, outlaw," going back to Old English bannan (class VII strong verb) "to summon by proclamation, call to arms," going back to Germanic *bannan- "to speak formally, call on, order" (whence also Old Frisian bonna, banna "to call upon, command, place under a ban," Old Saxon & Old High German bannan "to summon, order," Old Norse banna "to prohibit, curse"), going back to Indo-European *bho-n-h2-e-, presumed o-grade intensive derivative (with gemination from a present formation with *-nu̯-e-?) from a verbal base *bheh2- "speak, say," whence also Latin for, fārī "to speak, say," Greek phēmí, phánai, Armenian bay "(s/he) says, speaks," and with extensions Eastern Church Slavic baju, bajati "to tell (stories), cast a spell, cure," Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian bȁjati "to tell tales, practice sorcery," Sanskrit bhánati "(s/he) speaks, says, (it) sounds"

Note: The senses "curse, anathematize, prohibit," etc., in Middle English are not attested in Old English and are generally thought to reflect influence of the cognate Old Norse verb. The English verb has also been influenced in sense by Medieval Latin bannīre and Old French banir (see banish). — The reconstruction of the source of Germanic *bannan- in Indo-European terms is from G. Kroonen, Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Brill, 2013), though any number of alternative reconstructions are possible that result in the new verbal base *bann-. Indo-European *bheh2- "speak, say" is phonetically identical with and probably a semantic offshoot of the base *bheh2- "shine, give light, appear" (see fantasy entry 1); the presumed sense in shift would be "shine, give light" > "make bright, illuminate" > "make clear, clarify" > "speak, say."

Noun (1)

Middle English ban, bane, banne "proclamation by an authority, summons, one of the marriage banns, troop of warriors summoned by their overlord," in part noun derivative of bannen "to summon (troops) by proclamation," in part borrowed from Anglo-French ban, baan "proclamation, edict, jurisdiction, one of the marriage banns" (also continental Old French, "summons to arms by a lord, proclamation commanding or prohibiting an action"), going back to Old Low Franconian *banna-, going back to Germanic (whence also Old Frisian bon, ban, bān "order commanding or prohibiting under pain of a fine, authority, summoning of the army, banishment," Old Saxon bann "command, summons, fine, excommunication," Old High German ban "command by an authority, order, legal extension or withdrawal of protection"), noun derivative of *bannan- "to speak formally, call on, order" — more at ban entry 1

Note: The Middle English noun may also continue Old English gebann, gebenn "edict, proclamation, command," a derivative of gebannan, similar in meaning to unprefixed bannan. The negative senses "prohibition, condemnation," etc., though present to a limited degree already in early Medieval Latin, do not appear in English (or French) until the sixteenth century, and are in part derived from the verb ban entry 1. The Germanic etymon appears in Latin as bannus (or bannum), from the sixth century in Gregory of Tours' Historia Francorum, and the seventh century in the Lex Ripuaria, the laws of the Ripuarian Franks; the Latin word went on to develop a broad range of meanings (compare the entries in J.F. Niermeyer, Mediae Latinitatis lexicon minus and Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources).

Noun (2)

Romanian, money, coin, small coin

First Known Use

Verb

12th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 3

Noun (1)

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 5

Noun (2)

1880, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of ban was in the 12th century

Dictionary Entries Near ban

Cite this Entry

“Ban.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ban. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

ban

1 of 2 verb
banned; banning
1
: to forbid especially by law or social pressure
2

ban

2 of 2 noun
1
2
: an official order forbidding something

Legal Definition

ban

1 of 2 transitive verb
banned; banning
: to prohibit or forbid especially by legal means (as by statute or order)
ban solicitation
also : to prohibit the use, performance, or distribution of
legislation to ban DDT

ban

2 of 2 noun
: prohibition especially by statute or order
a ban on automatic weapons

More from Merriam-Webster on ban

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