prohibited

1. 1
   adjective

   Forbidden or banned by a rule, law, or authority.

   The park posts a long list of prohibited activities, from fishing to open fires.

   Goods prohibited by customs include certain plants, seeds, and fresh meats.

   Similarforbidden, banned, outlawed, barred, illegal

   Oppositepermitted, allowed, legal, authorized

   Note

   A participle that has settled into an adjective. Unusually for a word about rules, it can be graded: one thing can be more prohibited, or most prohibited, than another. Germán Bleiberg's Dictionary of the literature of the Iberian peninsula (1993) calls theater works and religious essays "the most prohibited literary genres." Before a noun, as in prohibited goods or a prohibited area, it names a standing status rather than the act of forbidding.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of prohibit.

   The treaty prohibited the testing of nuclear weapons.

   Health officials prohibited large gatherings during the outbreak.

   Note

   A transitive verb's form, so it always needs something being forbidden: the treaty prohibited testing. Because the verb takes a direct object, the participle turns readily to the passive (testing was prohibited), and it builds the perfect with have (officials have prohibited gatherings). The passive with be is where it blurs into the adjective: "the goods are prohibited" can report an act of banning or simply describe their status.

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