/bayn/ , n.
1. a person or thing that ruins or spoils: Gambling was the bane of his existence.
2. a deadly poison (often used in combination, as in the names of poisonous plants): wolfsbane; henbane.
3. death; destruction; ruin.
4. Obs. that which causes death or destroys life: entrapped and drowned beneath the watery bane.
[ bef. 1000; ME; OE bana slayer; c. ON bani death, murderer, OFris bona murder, OS bano murderer, OHG bano slayer, bana death; akin to OE benn, Goth banja wound ]