bane

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

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

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A slayer or murderer; a worker of death, as a man or an animal.
2. n. That which causes death or destroys life; especially, poison of a deadly quality.
3. n. Hence Any fatal cause of mischief, injury, or destruction: as, vice is the bane of society.
4. n. Ruin; destruction.
5. n. Death: usually with such verbs as catch, get, take: as, to catch one's bane.
6. n. A disease in sheep, more commonly called the rot. Synonyms Pest, curse, scourge.
7. To kill; poison.
8. To injure; ruin.
9. n. Scotch form of bone.
10. n. An obsolete form of ban, especially in plural banes, now banns (which see).
11. An obsolete form of bain.
12. An obsolete form of bain.

Wiktionary

1. n. A cause of misery or death; an affliction or curse
2. n. obsolete A killer, murderer, slayer
3. n. dated Poison, especially any of several poisonous plants
4. v. transitive To kill, especially by poison; to be the poison of.
5. v. transitive To be the bane of.
6. n. A bone

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Obs. except in combination, as in ratsbane, henbane, etc. That which destroys life, esp. poison of a deadly quality.
2. n. obsolete Destruction; death.
3. n. Any cause of ruin, or lasting injury; harm; woe.
4. n. A disease in sheep, commonly termed the rot.
5. v. obsolete To be the bane of; to ruin.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. something causing misery or death