banish
Definitions
To send someone away from a country or place as a punishment; to exile.
放逐，流放，驱逐出境。
To drive away unwanted thoughts, feelings, or things.
驱除，消除（不想要的念头、感觉或事物）。
Root Breakdown
Root-derivedban (proclaim, forbid, from bannum) + -ish (a verb ending from Old French) = to proclaim someone out — to issue the order that drives them into exile. From banishing people, English easily extended it to banishing thoughts and worries: ordering them to leave.
Root bar still carries 38 more wordsWhy It Means This
Banish keeps the original force of the bannum strand: not just 'remove' but 'remove by decree.' When a king banished a noble, it was a formal sentence. That sense of an authoritative push-away survives in the figurative use — banish your fears, banish all doubt — where you forcefully order something out of your mind.
Common Collocations
- 1.banish from从……放逐
- 2.banish thoughts of驱除……的念头
- 3.banish fears驱散恐惧
- 4.banish forever永远驱逐
Example Sentences
- 1.
The king banished the rebel lord from the kingdom forever.
- 2.
She tried to banish all thoughts of failure before the exam.
- 3.
A warm fire soon banished the chill from the room.
Easily Confused
banish vs exile — both mean forced removal, but banish is the act ordered by an authority (a court banishes you), while exile is often the resulting state, and can be self-imposed (he lived in exile; she went into voluntary exile). You are banished by someone; you live in exile.