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Definition of "banish" []

  • To force to leave a country or place by official decree; exile. (verb-transitive)
  • To drive away; expel: We banished all our doubts and fears. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "banish" in a sentence
  • "In old Mauritania, now Marocco,384 the Moors proper are notable sodomites; Moslems, even of saintly houses, are permitted openly to keep catamites, nor do their disciples think worse of their sanctity for such licence: in one case the English wife failed to banish from the home “that horrid boy.”"
  • "The sad truth was that, for a woman, a hasty word or an embrace—even unwanted—could be enough to tarnish her name and banish her and her family from society."
  • "When the Lord recalls the banish'd, [1415] h199-p1. 7, [1416] h199-p2. 4"