prohibition Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a law forbidding the sale of alcoholic beverages
    • in 1920 the 18th amendment to the Constitution established prohibition in the US
  2. noun a decree that prohibits something
    ban; proscription.
  3. noun the period from 1920 to 1933 when the sale of alcoholic beverages was prohibited in the United States by a constitutional amendment
    prohibition era.
  4. noun refusal to approve or assent to
  5. noun the action of prohibiting or inhibiting or forbidding (or an instance thereof)
    inhibition; forbiddance.
    • they were restrained by a prohibition in their charter
    • a medical inhibition of alcoholic beverages
    • he ignored his parents' forbiddance

WordNet

Pro`hi*bi"tion noun
Etymology
L. prohibitio: cf. F. prohibition.
Definitions
  1. The act of prohibiting; a declaration or injunction forbidding some action; interdict.
    The law of God, in the ten commandments, consists mostly of prohibitions. Tillotson.
  2. Specifically, the forbidding by law of the sale of alcoholic liquors as beverages. Blackstone. ✍ By ellipsis, prohibition is used for the writ itself.

Webster 1913