bane

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
“
It has been described as the bane of the middle class.

View all »
Definitions (19)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun Fatal injury or ruin: "Hath some fond lover tic'd thee to thy bane?” (George Herbert).
  2. noun A cause of harm, ruin, or death: "Obedience,/Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth,/Makes slaves of men” (Percy Bysshe Shelley).
  3. noun A source of persistent annoyance or exasperation: "The spellings of foreign names are often the bane of busy copy editors” (Norm Goldstein).
1 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (12)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • 'The talon was the mark of Oshikai Demon-bane, the oval the symbol of his wife, Shul-sen. —  David A
  • 'The male head is that of Oshikai Demon-bane, the female that of his wife, Shul-sen. —  David A
  • It has been described as the bane of the middle class. —  Thestar.com - Home Page
  • Discover the All Natural Cure for Yeast Infection Eva is acquired by the bottleneck of Candida bane which is consistently present in animal body. —  MyLinkVault Newest Links
  • Anyway, it got me thinking about my sister who I often describe as the bane of my existence. —  lorenjavier.com
More examples »
 

Tags

bane hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 359 times.

3 people have marked this word as a favorite.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Suggestions Wordniks Suggest

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, destroyer, from Old English bana; see gwhen- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also, less properly, bain, baine; from Middle English bane, from Anglo-Saxon bana, bona, a slayer, murderer, = Old Saxon bano = OFries. bona = Old High German bano, Middle High German bane, ban = Icelandic bani = Swedish Danish bane, death, murder (not in Goth); akin to Anglo-Saxon benn = Icelandic ben = Gothic (Moesogothic) banja, a wound, Greek φόνος, φονή, killing, murder, φονεύς, a slayer, murderer, √ *φεν (aorist ἔπεφνον, πεφνέμεν), slay; cf. √ *φα, slay, φατός, verbal adjective in comp., slain.
  2. from bane, n.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/beɪn/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word several times a year.

Recently looked up

Luddite · impregnate · flighty · DREAM · camouflage

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

eu oi oìa u ou e u oìa · the octopi are dry · Kansas City · spell it rite · put it in your pocket