FORBIDDING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does forbidding mean? 

• FORBIDDING (noun)
  The noun FORBIDDING has 1 sense:

1. an official prohibition or edict against something

  Familiarity information: FORBIDDING used as a noun is very rare.

• FORBIDDING (adjective)
  The adjective FORBIDDING has 2 senses:

1. harshly uninviting or formidable in manner or appearance

2. threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments

  Familiarity information: FORBIDDING used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FORBIDDING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An official prohibition or edict against something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

ban; banning; forbiddance; forbidding

Hypernyms ("forbidding" is a kind of...):

prohibition (refusal to approve or assent to)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "forbidding"):

test ban (a ban on the testing of nuclear weapons that is mutually agreed to by countries that possess nuclear weapons)

Derivation:

forbid (command against)

• FORBIDDING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Harshly uninviting or formidable in manner or appearance

Synonyms:

dour; forbidding; grim

Context example:

undoubtedly the grimmest part of him was his iron claw

Similar:

unpleasant (offensive or disagreeable; causing discomfort or unhappiness)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments

Synonyms:

baleful; forbidding; menacing; minacious; minatory; ominous; sinister; threatening

Context example:

the situation became ugly

Similar:

alarming (frightening because of an awareness of danger)

 Context examples 

I laughed bitterly to myself, and seemed to find in Wolf Larsen’s forbidding philosophy a more adequate explanation of life than I found in my own.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He takes the obvious course of keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of people of her own age.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I approached and knocked at the door, which was instantly opened by a tall, gaunt woman with a harsh, forbidding face.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But White Fang, uncompanionable, solitary, morose, scarcely looking to right or left, redoubtable, forbidding of aspect, remote and alien, was accepted as an equal by his puzzled elders.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

She got up with a headache, was unable to talk, and unwilling to take any nourishment; giving pain every moment to her mother and sisters, and forbidding all attempt at consolation from either.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Many, already smitten, went home only to die: some died at the school, and were buried quietly and quickly, the nature of the malady forbidding delay.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

As we approached the forbidding and squalid inn, with the sign of a game-cock above the door, Holmes gave a sudden groan, and clutched me by the shoulder to save himself from falling.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Actions in the Council of State in Belgium in the Court of Appeal in France on forbidding antennae or power lines.

(Health threats caused by mobile phone radiation, EUROPARL TV)

During this time we traversed a barren and forbidding country, which alternated between stony desert and desolate marshes full of many wild-fowl, upon the north and east of the cliffs.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There were men who said that of all the stern passages and daring deeds by which Sir Nigel Loring had proved the true temper of his courage, not the least was his wooing and winning of so forbidding a dame.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)