ban

present singular third person bans · participle present banning · participle past banned · past banned

1. transitiveTo prohibit; to interdict; to proscribe; to forbid or block from participation.

   Bare feet are banned in this establishment.

   4 more examples

   To whom the goodly earth and air Are banned

   1816, Lord Byron, The Prisoner of Chillon

   Jailing her on Wednesday, magistrate Liz Clyne told Robins: "You have shown little remorse either for the death of the kitten or the trauma to your former friend Sarah Knutton." She was also banned from keeping animals for 10 years.

   2011 December 14, Steven Morris, “Devon woman jailed for 168 days for killing kitten in microwave”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 20 Mar 2022

   No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.

   2013 August 10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848, archived from the original on 09 Mar 2023

   Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation on Sunday banning the sale at grocery checkouts of all plastic bags, regardless of thickness.

   2024 September 23, Soumya Karlamangla, “California Bans All Plastic Bags After Its First Effort Backfired”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 07 Oct 2024

   Synonyms: forbid, prohibit, disallow · Antonyms: allow, permit

2. obsoletetransitiveTo summon; to call out.
3. transitiveTo anathematize; to pronounce an ecclesiastical curse upon; to place under a ban.
4. transitiveTo curse; to execrate.

   They will curse and ban[…]even into the deep pit of hell, all that gainsay their appetite.

   c. 1555, Hugh Latimer, a sermon

5. ambitransitiveTo curse; to utter curses or maledictions.

   :“I seldom ban, sir,” said he to the man; “but if you play any of your hound's-foot tricks, and leave puir Berwick before he's sorted, to rin after spuilzie, deil be wi' me if I do not give your craig a thraw”

   1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC

plural bans

1. A prohibition.

   That sacred fruit, sacred to abstinence, Much more to taste it under ban to touch

   1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   California has been on the forefront of plastic bag bans. In 2007, Mr. Newsom, as mayor of San Francisco, signed a law that made the city the first in the nation to ban plastic bags in grocery stores.

   2024 September 23, Soumya Karlamangla, “California Bans All Plastic Bags After Its First Effort Backfired”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 07 Oct 2024

   The community also has faced political setbacks in recent years as states passed a flurry of laws, including health care bans like the one at issue in the case and measures that prohibit trans students from participating on sports teams that are consistent with their gender identity.

   2024 October 21, Devan Cole, “ACLU attorney will be the first openly transgender advocate to argue before Supreme Court”, in CNN, archived from the original on 21 Dec 2024

2. A public proclamation or edict; also, a summons by public proclamation, and in early use especially a summons to arms.

   Bans is common and ordinary amongst the Feudists, and signifies a proclamation, or any publike notice.

   1641, John Rastell, translated by William Rastell, Termes de la Lay, 37b

3. The gathering of the (French) king’s vassals for war; the whole body of vassals assembled this way, or liable to be summoned; originally the same as arriere-ban, but distinct since the 16th century, following French usage—see arriere-ban.

   […] all the Ban and the Arrierban, are met arm’d in the field, to choose a King […]

   1671, John Crowne, Juliana, or, The princess of Poland a tragicomedy, as it is acted at His Royal Highness the Duke of York's theatre, Act I, page 8

   4 more examples

   […] he hath sente abroade to assemble his van and arriere van; wherby, and with the reste of his forces, he prepareth him selfe to enter this countrey; […]

   1591, published 1847, Henry Unton, Correspondence of Sir Henry Unton, knt., Ambassador from Queen Elizabeth to Henry IV. King of France, in the years MDXCI. and MDXCII., page 54

   France was at such a Pinch for Men, […] that they call’d their Ban and Arriere Ban, the assembling whereof had been long disus’ed, and in a Manner antiquated.

   1683, William Temple, chapter I, in Memoirs of what past in Christendom, from the War begun 1672, to the Peace concluded 1679

   The ban was sometimes convoked, that is, the possessors of the fiefs were called upon for military service in subsequent ages; but with more of ostentation than real efficiency.

   1818, Henry Hallam, View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, chapter II, part II

   The act of calling together the vassals in armed array, was entitled “convoking the ban”—“convoquer le ban.”

   1874, Charles Boutell, chapter 7, in Arms And Armour In Antiquity And The Middle Ages, page 98

4. obsoleteA curse or anathema.

   With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]

5. A pecuniary mulct or penalty laid upon a delinquent for offending against a ban, such as a mulct paid to a bishop by one guilty of sacrilege or other crimes.

plural bani

1. A subdivision of currency, equal to one hundredth of a Romanian leu.
2. A subdivision of currency, equal to one hundredth of a Moldovan leu.

plural bans

1. A unit measuring information or entropy based on base-ten logarithms, rather than the base-two logarithms that define the bit.

   Synonyms: ditl, hartley

plural bans

1. A title used in several states in central and south-eastern Europe between the 7th century and the 20th century.

1. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of British Approved Name.

plural Bans

1. A surname.