Primary
''baneful'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260606185347-00-⌔
baneful - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Adjective
baneful (comparative more baneful, superlative most baneful)
- (archaic) Poisonous, deadly.
- ✤ [S]ome fell ſerpent in his cave expects/The traveller’s approach, batten’d vvith herbs/Of baneful juice to fury, forth he looks/Hideous, and lies coil’d all around his den.1
- Harmful, injurious.
- ✤ This contempt of the understanding in early life has more baneful consequences than is commonly supposed […]2
Etymology
From bane + -ful.
Printed 2026-06-28.
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Link to original Footnotes
1791, Homer, “[The Iliad.] Book XXII.”, in W[illiam] Cowper, transl., The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Translated into Blank Verse, […], volume I, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 577, lines 106–109: ↩
1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLC: ↩
Secondary
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