bane 
Hence 3. Any fatal cause of mischief, injury, 
or destruction : as, vice is the bane of society. 
Bane of the poor ! it wounds their weaker mind 
To miss one favour which their neighbours flnd. 
Crabbe, The Parish Eegister. 
Thoughts witli better thoughts at strife, 
The most familiar bane of life. 
Wordsworth, Sequel to Beggars. 
4. Euin; destruction. 
440 
'Twas over the head, he fell down for dead, 
O, that was a damnable bany ! 
Robin Hood and the Ranyer, in Child's Ballads, V. 209. 
banish 
to the Christian ministry. Convocation declared that 
Hoadly's teaching tended to subvert all government in 
[< bang 1 , v., 
The cup of deception spiced and tempered to their bane. 
Milton. 
I heard several bangs or buffets . . . given to the eagle 
that held the ring of my box in his beak. 
Swift, Gulliver's Travels. 
2 A loud, sudden, explosive noise, as the dis- bang-pitchert (bang'pich'ei 
charge of a gun or cannon, the slamming of a + { p it c ] ier .] A clrunka] 
door, etc. 
The steps 
with a bitntf. 
He made his exit, clearing the stairs at a stride or two, 
and making the house shake with the bang of the front , hlm ; hence, a victor or champion. [Scotch.] 
door behind him. Charlotte Bronte, Shirley, i. bang-straw (bang stra), n. A thresher. [Prov. 
the church of Christ, reducing his kingdom to anarchy, 
and it was about to proceed against him when the king 
saved him by proroguing Convocation, and renewing the 
prorogation as often as it had to be. summoned again. 
er), n. 
pitcher.] A drunkard. 
bangsring (bangz'ring). n. Same as banxring. 
.The steps of a nne-belozenged carriage were let down bangster (bang'ster), n. [< bang 1 , V., + -ster.] 
A violent fellow who carries everything before 
5t. Death : usually with such verbs as catch, nK """ le " K " ll ' " emlac uic stalrs at a stmle or two ' "--'-- ----- 
get, take: as, to catch one's bane. 
She catch'd her bane o' th' water. 3. A sudden, impetuous movement; an ener- ^ n g-J 
Middleton, chaste Maid, v. 2. getic dagh or bounce : aS; he got up with a bang, bangue, n. See bhang. 
6. A disease in sheep, more commonly called 4. A stick; a club. [North. Eng.]=gyn i bang-up (bang up), a. or adv. [< bang 1 , v. or 
the rot. =Syn. 3. Pest, curse, scourge. See thump. ' adv., implying energy or dash, + up, implying 
bane 1 ! (ban),_. t. [< bane 1 , n.] 1. To kill; bang 1 (bang), adv. [Adverbial use of bang 1 , v. completeness.] In fine style ; in the best man- 
or .] With a sudden or violent blow or clap ; ner; complete; perfect: as, a bang-up enter- 
all of a sudden ; abruptly: especially with come tainment; "task bang-up," Scott, Diary, Sept. 
or go : as, bang went the guns. 8, 1826 (in Lockhart's Life). [Slang.] 
A 321b. shot struck us bang on the quarter. bangy, n. See banghy. 
Tom Cringle's Lay, Blackwood's Mag., XXXII. 31. banian 1 , banyan 1 (ban'ian), n. [Formerly 
bang 2 (bang), v. t. [< bang 1 , adv.; to cut the also baunian, bannyan, baniane; = P. banian, < 
hair 'bang off.'] To cut across: used of hair. p g- banian, prob., through Ar. banyan, < Hind. 
(a) To cut (the hair) so as to form a fringe over banya (also banik), Beng. baniya, banya, benya, 
the forehead: a common fashion with girls and a , trader, merchant, Girjarati vaniyo, a man of 
young women. 
poison. 2. To injure; ruin. 
for minors have not only baned families but ruined 
realms. Fidler. 
bane 2 (ban), n. Scotch form of bone 1 . 
bane 3 t, An obsolete form of ban 1 , especially 
in plural banes, now banns (which see). 
bane 4 t, # An obsolete form of bain 1 . 
bane B t, . and a. An obsolete form of bain 2 . 
baneberry (ban'ber"i), n. [< bane 1 + berry 1 .] 
The common name of plants of the genus 
Actwa: so called because of their nauseous 
poisonous berries. Also called herb-christopher. 
ee Actcea. 
He was bareheaded, his hair banged even with his eye- 
brows in front. The Century, XXV. 192. 
(b) To dock (a horse's tail). 
a merchant, 
1. A Hindu 
baneful (bau'ful), a. [< bane 1 + -ful.] De- bang 2 (bang), . [< bang*, v.] The front hair 
structive; pernicious; poisonous: as, "baneful cut so as to hang evenly over the forehead: 
wrath," Chapman, Iliad, i. 1; "baneful hem- often in the ph 
lock," Garth, The Dispensary, ii. 
Like baneful herbs the gazer's eye they seize, 
Rush to the head, and poison where they please. 
Crabbe, The Newspaper. 
= Syn. Hurtful, harmful, mischievous, deadly. 
banefully (ban'ful-i), adv. In a baneful man- 
ner; perniciously; destructively. 
banefulness (ban'ful-nes), n. The quality of 
being baneful or hurtful ; poisonousness. 
banewort (ban'wert), n. A name applied to 
two plants : (a) A tropa Belladonna, or deadly 
nightshade; (b) Ranunculus Flammtila, or lesser 
spearwort, from the supposition that it is a 
bane to sheep. 
bang 1 (bang), T^ [Early mod. E. also bangue; 
(lural : as, to wear bangs. 
Dang' 1 . . See bhang. 
bang-beggar (bang'beg'ar), n. [< bang 1 , v., + 
obj. beggar.] 1. A strong staff. 2. A consta- 
ble or beadle. [Scotch and prov. Eng.] 
bangerts (ban'gerts), n. [E. dial., possibly 
connected with bank 1 .] In mining, a coarse 
kind of stopping used to hold up the earth. 
[Eng.] 
banghy (bang'i), n. [Hind, banghi.] 1. In 
the East Indies, a sort of bamboo pole or yoke 
carried on a person's shoulder with a load sus- 
pended at each end. Hence 2. A parcel- 
post: a carrier. 
banghy-post (bang'i-post), n. 
. . Same as bang- 
nottound in ME., but prob. existent ; of native banghy-wallah (bang'i-waFa), n. [< Hind, 
or bound, origin, = LG. bangen, freq. bangeln, banghi (see banghy) + -wdld (in comp.), -man.] 
strike, beaMcf. D. bengel, a bell, bengelen, ring In British India, one who carries a banghy. 
the trading caste, < Skt. rniiij. 
possibly < y pan, buy, bargain.] 
trader or merchant, especially of the province 
of Guzerat; one engaged in commerce gener- 
ally, but more particularly one of the great 
traders of western India, as in the seaports of 
Bombay, Kurrachee, etc., who carry on a large 
trade with the interior of Asia by means of cara- 
vans, and with Africa by vessels. They form a 
class of the caste Vaisya, wear a peculiar dress, and are 
strict in the observance of fasts and in abstaining from 
the use of flesh. 
The Banians would eat nothing that had life. Their 
priests were called verteai, and wore white clothes, which 
they never took off until worn to rags. They lived upon 
charity, and kept nothing till the next day. 
J. T. Wheeler, Hist. India, III. 421. 
2. In British India, originally, a cotton shirt 
worn by the Hindus. Hence (a) Any under- 
garment, even of the elastic web made in Eng- 
land, (b) Any loose or easy dress worn in the 
house, especially one modeled on the native 
dress of the Hindus Banian days, originally two 
days in the week, and afterward one, in whichsailors in the 
British navy had no flesh-meat served out to them. Ban- 
ian days are now abolished, but the term is still applied 
to days of poor fare. 
a bell MHG. bengel, a club, G. bengel, a club, banging (bang'ing), a. [Prop. ppr. of bang 1 . banian 2 , banyan 2 (ban'ian), n. [For banian- 
ciown), = lcel. oanga = Obw. bttnga, hammer, Cf. thumping, whopping.] Huge; great; sur- r banyan-tree, that is, banians' tree, tree of 
= Norw. banka = Dan. banke, beat. In popn- passing in size. [Vulgar] "" *----- "-- 
lar apprehension the word is imitative.] I. bangle 1 ! (bang'gl), v. [Prob. freq. of bano 1 v.] 
trans. 1. To beat, as with a club or cudgel; I. trans. 1. To beat about or down, as corn by 
thump; cudgel. the ^^ rp rov . Eng.] 2. To waste by lit> 
He having got some iron out of the earth, put it into his 
servants' hands to fence with, and bang one another. 
Locke. 
2. To beat or handle roughly in any way; 
treat with violence; knock about; drub; de- 
feat: often with about: as, to bang' the furni- 
ture about. 
The desperate tempest hath so bang'd the Turks 
That their designment halts. Shak., Othello, ii. 1. 
What galleys have we bang'd, and sunk, and taken, 
Whose only fraughts were fire and stern defiance. 
Fletcher, Double Marriage, ii. 1. 
3. To produce a loud noise from or by, as in 
slamming a door, and the like : as, he went out 
and banged the door behind him. 
Twa unlucky redcoats . . . banged aff a gun at him. 
Scott, Waverley, II. xxviii. 
4. To beat in any quality or action ; surpass ; 
excel. [Colloq.] 
The practical denial of the common brotherhood of the 
same family bangs heathenism. J. Mill. 
That bangs Banagher, and Banagher bangs the world. 
Irish saying. 
II. intrans. 1. To strike violently or noisily ; 
thump : usually with against. 
Now there are certain particles or small masses of mat- 
let of glass^ 
tie and little ; squander carelessly; fritter. 
If we bangle away the legacy of peace left us by Christ, 
it is a sign of our want of regard for him. 
Whole Duty of Man. 
II. intrants. 1. In falconry, to beat about in 
the air ; flutter : said of a hawk which does not 
rise steadily and then swoop down upon its 
prey. 2. To flap or hang down loosely, as a 
hat-brim or an animal's ear. 
bangle 2 (bang'gl), n. [< Hind, bangri, a brace- 
s.] 1. An ornamental ring worn 
upon the arms 
and ankles in 
India and Af- 
rica. Hence 
2. A bracelet 
without a clasp; 
a ring-bracelet, 
generally with 
small ornaments suspended from it. 
We hear too often of Bertha's various dresses, and a 
great deal too much of her bangles. 
The American.VI. 124. 
o. Naut., a hoop of a spar. 
the banians or Hindu merchants ; orig. applied 
to an individual tree of this species at Gom- 
broon, a port of the Persian gulf, and then ex- 
tended to all trees of the species, from their 
frequent use as market-places. The native 
Hind, name for the tree is bar, < Skt. vata 
(cerebral t), the banian-tree.] An East Indian 
Bangles from East India Museum, London. 
^ - - -*- 
bangle-ear (bang'gl-er), n. [< bangle 1 + ear 1 .] 
A loose, hanging ear, as of a dog. 
- 
ter which we know to bang against one another according garded as an imperfection. 
to certain laws. w. K. Clifford, Lectures, 1. 177 bangle- 
2. To resound with clashing noises. 
The maid and page renew'd their strife, 
The palace bang'd and buzz'd and clackt. 
Tennyson, Day-Dream. 
3. To spring or move with sudden energy or 
impetus; bounce: as, he banged up at once. 
bang 1 (bang), n. [= Icel. bang = Sw. bdng, a 
hammering, = Norw. Dan. bank, a beating; from 
the verb.] 1. A heavy, resounding blow; a 
thump, as with a club. 
The very first blow that the forester gave, 
He made his broad weapon cry twang ; 
Banian (Ficus Bengatensis). 
fig-tree, Ficus Sengalensis, natural order Urti- 
cacece, remarkable for the area which individ- 
ual trees cover through the development of 
roots from the branches, which descend to the 
ground and become trunks for the support and 
nourishment of the extending crown, it is ex- 
tensively planted throughout India as a shade-tree, and is 
of rapid'growth, frequently covering a space 100 yards in 
diameter and reaching a height of 80 or 100 feet. The 
fruit is of the size of a cherry. As in some other tropical 
species of the genus, the seeds rarely germinate in the 
ground, but usually in the crowns of palms or other trees, 
where they have been deposited by birds. Roots are sent 
down to the ground, and they embrace and finally kill the 
nurse-palm. The tree furnishes lac, the bark is made 
into cordage, the milky juice yields a bird-lime, and the 
leaves are fashioned into platters. The wood is soft and 
of little value. 
banie (ba'ni), a. A Scotch form of bony. 
Dr. Hoaal y ,bisho P ~of~B"angor7from' the text" My kingdom banish (ban'ish), v. t. [< ME. banishen, ban- 
is not of this world," from which the bishop argued that V sen j < OF. banir, bannir (baniss-), mod. F. bannir 
Christ had not delegated judicial and disciplinary powers = OSp. Pg. bandir = It. bandire, ML. bannire, 
It is re- 
bangle-eared (bang'gl-erd), a. [Also bangled- 
eared; as bangle-ear + -ed^.] Flap-eared, like 
a spaniel. 
banglingt (bang'gling), B. [Verbal n. of bo- 
gle 1 , v.] Contention; squabbling. 
rorian (bang-go'ri-an),_a. [< Bangor, 
Bangorian controversy, a controversy stirred up by 
sermon preached before George I. on MarSi 31, 1717, ] 
by 
