banning

Pluralbannings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of ban.

   Several countries are banning single-use plastics through new regulations.

   Banning the chemical outright proved more effective than limiting its use.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs. After a form of be it is the progressive participle (they are banning imports). In a noun slot it is the gerund (banning it worked). The final n doubles before -ing, just as it does in banned. Behind the form stand older meanings of ban: to curse, to anathematize, and the now obsolete 'to summon.' So in an older text, banning may mean cursing rather than forbidding.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of officially forbidding something; a prohibition.

   The banning of fireworks upset many longtime residents.

   After the banning took effect, sales of the product dropped sharply.

   Similarprohibition, proscription

   Oppositelegalization

   Note

   A noun with a long history of its own: Middle English already had banning, and Dutch banning and German Bannung are its cousins. Unlike the gerund, it takes of before its object. You write the banning of fireworks, never the banning fireworks. It can also be counted: Andrew Isker wrote in 2023 of 'waves of bannings' of online accounts.

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