Bane

/beɪn/ · noun

Meaning

(countable) A cause of misery or ruin..

Definitions by Sense

1. (countable) A cause of misery or ruin.
2. (countable, archaic) Chiefly in the names of poisonous plants or substances: a poison.
3. (uncountable, chiefly poetic) Misery, woe; also, doom, ruin; or physical injury, harm.
4. (uncountable, UK, dialectal, veterinary medicine) A disease of sheep in which breakdown of tissue occurs; rot.
5. A person or thing that causes death or destruction; a killer, a murderer, a slayer.
6. Death; destruction; (countable) an instance of this.
7. To physically injure (someone or something); to harm, to hurt.
8. To cause (someone) misery or ruin; to socially or spiritually injure (someone).

Example Sentences

the bane of one’s existence

Money, thou bane of bliſſe, & ſourſe of vvo, / VVhence com'ſt thou, that thou art ſo freſh and fine? / I knovv thy parentage is baſe and lovv: / Man found thee poore and dirtie in a mine.

This is the great bane and ſcandal of the Church, that ſuch Livings as more immediately belong to it ſhould be the vvorſt ſupplyed, […]

All that I apprehend is, that dear Numps will be angry I have published these lines [of his poem]; not that he has any reason [to] be ashamed of them, but for fear of those rogues, the bane to all excellent performances, the imitators.

She, who had been the bane of his life, blighting his hope, and awarding him, for love and domestic happiness, long mourning and cheerless solitude, he treated with the respect a good son might offer a kind mother.

At Barking, previously the bane of L.T.S. operating staff, the new works have now simplified the working of traffic from four converging routes in the area.

For my part I would rather counſell you to deſtroy your Rattes and Miſe with Traps, Banes, or Weeſels: for beſides the ſluttiſhneſſe & lothſomeneſſe of the Catte (you know what ſhe layes in the Malt heape) ſhe is moſt daungerous and pernicious among children, as I mee ſelf haue had good experience.

In dairie no cat, / Laie bane for a rat. / […] / Take heede how thou laieſt, the bane for the rats, / for poiſoning ſeruant, thy ſelfe and thy brats.

Synonyms for bane

Antonyms for bane

Related Words

Word Forms

• banes
• baning
• baned
• no-table-tags
• glossary
• bane
• banest
• banedst
• baneth
• -

Usage Notes

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