banish summarily or authoritatively, and usually under circumstances of disgrace; as, to expel from a
college; expelled from decent society.
Banisher
(Ban"ish*er) n. One who banishes.
Banishment
(Ban"ish*ment) n. [Cf. F. bannissement.] The act of banishing, or the state of being
banished.
He secured himself by the banishment of his enemies.
Johnson.
Round the wide world in banishment we roam.
Dryden.
Syn. — Expatriation; ostracism; expulsion; proscription; exile; outlawry.
Banister
(Ban"is*ter) n. [A corruption of baluster.] A baluster; (pl.) the balustrade of a staircase.
He struggled to ascend the pulpit stairs, holding hard on the banisters. Sir W. Scott.
Banjo
(Ban"jo) n. [Formerly also banjore and banjer; corrupted from bandore, through negro slave
pronunciation.] A stringed musical instrument having a head and neck like the guitar, and its body like
a tambourine. It has five strings, and is played with the fingers and hands.
Bank
(Bank) n. [OE. banke; akin to E. bench, and prob. of Scand. origin; cf. Icel. bakki. See Bench.]
1. A mound, pile, or ridge of earth, raised above the surrounding level; hence, anything shaped like a
mound or ridge of earth; as, a bank of clouds; a bank of snow.
They cast up a bank against the city.
2 Sam. xx. 15.
2. A steep acclivity, as the slope of a hill, or the side of a ravine.
3. The margin of a watercourse; the rising ground bordering a lake, river, or sea, or forming the edge of
a cutting, or other hollow.
Tiber trembled underneath her banks.
Shak.
4. An elevation, or rising ground, under the sea; a shoal, shelf, or shallow; as, the banks of Newfoundland.
5. (Mining) (a) The face of the coal at which miners are working. (b) A deposit of ore or coal, worked
by excavations above water level. (c) The ground at the top of a shaft; as, ores are brought to bank.
Bank beaver (Zoöl.), the otter. [Local, U.S.] — Bank swallow, a small American and European swallow
(Clivicola riparia) that nests in a hole which it excavates in a bank.
Bank
(Bank), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Banked(ba&nsmkt); p. pr. & vb. n. Banking.]
1. To raise a mound or dike about; to inclose, defend, or fortify with a bank; to embank. "Banked well
with earth." Holland.
2. To heap or pile up; as, to bank sand.
3. To pass by the banks of. [Obs.] Shak.
To bank a fire, To bank up a fire, to cover the coals or embers with ashes or cinders, thus keeping
the fire low but alive.
Bank
(Bank), n. [Prob. fr. F. banc. Of German origin, and akin to E. bench. See Bench.]
