bane

[ beyn ]

noun

1. a person or thing that ruins or spoils:

   Gambling was the bane of his existence.

2. a deadly poison (often used in combination, as in the names of poisonous plants):

   wolfsbane;

   henbane.

3. death; destruction; ruin.
4. Obsolete. that which causes death or destroys life:

   entrapped and drowned beneath the watery bane.

bane

¹

/ beɪn /

noun

1. a person or thing that causes misery or distress (esp in the phrase bane of one's life )
2. something that causes death or destruction
3. 1. a fatal poison
   2. ( in combination )

      ratsbane

4. archaic.
   ruin or distress

bane

²

/ beɪn; ben /

noun

1. a Scot word for bone

Word History and Origins

Origin of bane¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English bana “slayer”; cognate with Old Norse bani “death, murderer,” Old Frisian bona “murder,” Old Saxon bano “murderer,” Old High German bano “slayer,” bana “death”; akin to Armenian ǰnǰel “to destroy,” Greek theínein “to strike,” Latin -fendere “to strike,” Persian zahr “poison,” Polish gonić “to pursue,” Sanskrit hánti “to strike”

Word History and Origins

Origin of bane¹

Old English bana ; related to Old Norse bani death, Old High German bano destruction, death

Example Sentences

Reposting is a common bane on Reddit and involves sharing the content of any type, pictures, gifs, videos previously shared by the original poster on another subreddit.

From Search Engine Watch

Sleet is often the bane of winter weather forecasting in our region.

From Washington Post

Friend drama has always been the bane of teen and tween girl existence.

From Washington Post

You may never have heard of it, but it is the bane of new brands trying to create brand awareness or make headways into industries dominated by big guns.

From Search Engine Watch

“Any more uncertainty on any level is just the bane of these state agencies’ existence,” Evermore said.

From Fortune

Bane said this is the real reason for SIGAR reluctance to let the Shadman case go.

From The Daily Beast

Hockney saw the object that would become the bane of office secretaries everywhere as bringing him closer to his art.

From The Daily Beast

Zac kept walking around the set doing Bane impersonations—“I was born in the dark!”

From The Daily Beast

This problem has a long history and is the bane of drug prevention experts.

From The Daily Beast

The agenda is likely to focus on Syria, which has been a bane to the pope since taking office last March.

From The Daily Beast

Seems as if K. was beginning to come up against those political forces which have ever been a British Commander's bane.

From Project Gutenberg

Love of money was throughout the bane of Loftus, and went far to neutralise the good effects of his learning and eloquence.

From Project Gutenberg

He is presumed here to have been killed by Hother, who is therefore called “the bane of Gelder.”

From Project Gutenberg

It might be good for hogs, but it was a form of monks' bane, as it were.

From Project Gutenberg

Anything with my hands but I bane not much good on head work.

From Project Gutenberg