bane

• POS: Noun

CIDE DICTIONARY

bane, n. [OE. bane destruction, AS. bana murderer; akin to Icel. bani death, murderer, OHG. bana murder, bano murderer, Goth. banja stroke, wound, Gr. foney`s murderer, fo`nos murder, OIr. bath death, benim I strike.

•  That which destroys life, esp. poison of a deadly quality.  [1913 Webster]
•  Destruction; death.  [1913 Webster]

  "The cup of deception spiced and tempered to their bane."  [1913 Webster]
•  Any cause of ruin, or lasting injury; harm; woe.  [1913 Webster]

  "Money, thou bane of bliss, and source of woe."  [1913 Webster]
•  A disease in sheep, commonly termed the rot.  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Poison; ruin; destruction; injury; pest.

bane, v. t. 

 To be the bane of; to ruin.  Fuller.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

bane, n.
1 the cause of ruin or trouble; the curse (esp. the bane of one's life).
2 poet. ruin; woe.
3 archaic (except in comb.) poison (ratsbane).

Derivative

baneful adj. banefully adv.

Etymology

OE bana f. Gmc

THESAURUS

bane

abomination, annihilation, atrocity, bad, befoulment, biological death, blight, blood, bloodletting, bloodshed, braining, cessation of life, clinical death, contagion, corruption, crossing the bar, crying evil, curtains, damage, dealing death, death, death knell, deathblow, debt of nature, decease, defilement, demise, departure, despoliation, destroyer, destruction, destruction of life, detriment, dispatch, dissolution, doom, dying, ebb of life, end, end of life, ending, eternal rest, euthanasia, evil, execution, exit, expiration, extermination, extinction, extinguishment, fate, final summons, finger of death, flow of blood, going, going off, gore, grave, grievance, hand of death, harm, havoc, hurt, ill, immolation, infection, injury, jaws of death, kill, killing, knell, lapidation, last debt, last muster, last rest, last roundup, last sleep, leaving life, loss of life, making an end, martyrdom, martyrization, mercy killing, mischief, outrage, parting, passing, passing away, passing over, perishing, poison, poisoning, pollution, quietus, release, rest, reward, ritual killing, ritual murder, ruin, ruination, sacrifice, sentence of death, shades of death, shadow of death, shooting, slaughter, slaying, sleep, somatic death, stoning, summons of death, taking of life, the worst, toxin, undoing, venom, vexation, virus, woe, wrong

ROGET THESAURUS

bane

Badness

N badness, hurtfulness, virulence, evil doer, bane, plague spot, evil star, ill wind, hoodoo, Jonah, snake in the grass, skeleton in the closet, amari aliquid, thorn in the side, malignity, malevolence, tender mercies, ill-treatment, annoyance, molestation, abuse, oppression, persecution, outrage, misusage, injury, knockout drops, badness, peccancy, abomination, painfulness, pestilence, guilt, depravity, hurtful, harmful, scathful, baneful, baleful, injurious, deleterious, detrimental, noxious, pernicious, mischievous, full of mischief, mischief-making, malefic, malignant, nocuous, noisome, prejudicial, disserviceable, disadvantageous, wide-wasting, unlucky, sinister, obnoxious, untoward, disastrous, oppressive, burdensome, onerous, malign, corrupting &c (corrupt), virulent, venomous, envenomed, corrosive, poisonous, deadly, destructive, inauspicious, bad, ill, arrant, as bad as bad can be, dreadful, horrid, horrible, dire, rank, peccant, foul, fulsome, rotten, rotten at the core, vile, base, villainous, mean, injured, deteriorated, unsatisfactory, exceptionable indifferent, below par, illcontrived, ill-conditioned, wretched, sad, grievous, deplorable, lamentable, pitiful, pitiable, woeful, evil, wrong, depraved, shocking, reprehensible, hateful, hateful as a toad, abominable, detestable, execrable, cursed, accursed, confounded, damned, damnable, infernal, diabolic, unadvisable, unprofitable, incompetent, irremediable, badly, wrong, ill, to one's cost, where the shoe pinches, bad is the best: the worst come to the worst, herba mala presto cresco, wrongs unredressed or insults unavenged.

Bane

N bane, curse, evil, hurtfulness, painfulness, scourge, damnosa hereditas, white elephant, sting, fang, thorn, tang, bramble, brier, nettle, poison, toxin, teratogen, leaven, virus venom, arsenic, antimony, tartar emetic, strychnine, nicotine, miasma, miasm, mephitis, malaria, azote, sewer gas, pest, Albany hemp, arsenious oxide, arsenious acid, bichloride of mercury, carbonic acid, carbonic gas, choke damp, corrosive sublimate, fire damp, hydrocyanic acid, cyanide, Prussic acid, hydrogen cyanide, marsh gas, nux vomica, ratsbane, hemlock, hellebore, nightshade, belladonna, henbane, aconite, banewort, bhang, ganja, hashish, Upas tree, Toxline (online), rust, worm, helminth, moth, moth and rust, fungus, mildew, dry rot, canker, cankerworm, cancer, torpedo, viper, demon, toxicology, baneful, poisonous, phr, bibere venenum in auro, Contingent Subservience.

Evil doer

N evil doer, evil worker, wrongdoer, mischief-maker, marplot, oppressor, tyrant, destroyer, Vandal, iconoclast, firebrand, incendiary, fire bug, pyromaniac, anarchist, communist, terrorist, savage, brute, ruffian, barbarian, semibarbarian, caitiff, desperado, Apache, hoodlum, hood, plug-ugly, Red Skin, tough, Mohawk, Mo-hock, Mo-hawk, bludgeon man, bully, rough, hooligan, larrikin, dangerous classes, ugly customer, thief, cockatrice, scorpion, hornet, snake, viper, adder, snake in the grass, serpent, cobra, asp, rattlesnake, anaconda, canker-worm, wire-worm, locust, Colorado beetle, alacran, alligator, caymon, crocodile, mosquito, mugger, octopus, torpedo, bane, cutthroat, cannibal, anthropophagus, anthropophagist, bloodsucker, vampire, ogre, ghoul, gorilla, vulture, gyrfalcon, gerfalcon, wild beast, tiger, hyena, butcher, hangman, blood-hound, hell- hound, sleuth-hound, catamount, cougar, jaguar, puma, hag, hellhag, beldam, Jezebel, monster, fiend, devil incarnate, demon in human shape, Frankenstein's monster, harpy, siren, Furies, Eumenides, Hun, Attila, scourge of the human race, faenum habet in cornu.

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