Wiktionary:Word of the day/2025/April 17

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bane n

(countable) A cause of misery or ruin. (countable, archaic) Chiefly in the names of poisonous plants or substances: a poison. (uncountable, chiefly poetic) Misery, woe; also doom, ruin; or physical injury, harm. (uncountable, UK, dialectal, veterinary medicine) A disease of sheep in which breakdown of tissue occurs; rot. (obsolete) (countable) A person or thing that causes death or destruction; a killer, a murderer, a slayer. (uncountable) Death; destruction; (countable) an instance of this. bane v (transitive) (archaic) To physically injure (someone or something); to harm, to hurt. (figurative) To cause (someone) misery or ruin; to socially or spiritually injure (someone). (UK, dialectal, veterinary medicine) To cause (sheep) a disease, especially the rot (“a disease in which breakdown of tissue occurs”). (obsolete) To kill (a person or animal), especially by poison. [...]

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