Banish \Ban"ish\ (b[a^]n"[i^]sh), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Banished} (b[a^]n"[i^]sht); p. pr. & vb. n. {Banishing}.] [OF. banir, F. bannir, LL. bannire, fr. OHG. bannan to summon, fr. ban ban. See {Ban} an edict, and {Finish}, v. t.] 1. To condemn to exile, or compel to leave one's country, by authority of the ruling power. ``We banish you our territories.'' --Shak.
2. To drive out, as from a home or familiar place; -- used with from and out of.
How the ancient Celtic tongue came to be banished from the Low Countries in Scotland. --Blair.
3. To drive away; to compel to depart; to dispel. ``Banish all offense.'' --Shak.
Syn: To {Banish}, {Exile}, {Expel}.
Usage: The idea of a coercive removal from a place is common to these terms. A man is banished when he is forced by the government of a country (be he a foreigner or a native) to leave its borders. A man is exiled when he is driven into banishment from his native country and home. Thus to exile is to banish, but to banish is not always to exile. To expel is to eject or banish summarily or authoritatively, and usually under circumstances of disgrace; as, to expel from a college; expelled from decent society.
Perhaps they will now persuade Congress to banish the lobbyists and let a reforming president get on with the job of providing it.
"He made such a frightful din on the piano we had to banish him from the house," Sacheverell once said.
They don't want to banish people to the streets, but neither do they want their family atmosphere disrupted by shabby creatures, sometimes lugging all their worldly possessions in shopping bags and carts.
But Roberts said the Postal Service would not violate free-speech rights if it chose to banish from its property all activities not linked directly to postal business.
Unable to banish malathion-spraying helicopters from its skies, Los Angeles wants to bar them from its airfields.
Messrs. Fletcher and Hooks have allies among GOP politicos who hope to banish the ghost of Willie Horton.
The economic situation argues for it: it is hard to imagine a plausible recovery strong enough to banish disillusion.
Yugoslavia, though not a member of the Soviet bloc, has been grappling with serious ethnic clashes that until now have overshadowed growing calls to banish the Communist Party's power monopoly.