These words all refer to a declaration that something must not be done or to an action which prevents something from being done. To prohibit is to give some formal command against or, more specifically, to make some authoritative legal enactment against. There is in prohibit a definite implication of readiness to use such force as may be needed to give effect to the enactment: In our city, smoking in theatres is prohibited by law. Forbid is a less formal word than prohibit , and suggests a personal relationship between the people involved in the forbidding : her mother forbade the little girl to have the house before she had finished her homework.

The rest of the words in this group are less general than prohibit or forbid . Ban and interdict suggest prohibiting by ecclesiastical or civil authority. Interdict is chiefly known for its ecclesiastical use: to interdict the administration of the sacraments to a heretical group. Ban frequently implies moral condemnation or disapproval, and often refers to an object or work of art rather than to an action or practice: The film became an enormous box-office success because the book had been banned on the grounds of obscenity. Debar means to shut out or exclude, as from some place or condition. It hints strongly at the action of an irresistible authority or inner necessity: His plea of insanity was debarred by his own admissions. Enjoin has specific application to legal contexts. It means to prohibit or command by judicial order or injunction: waterside workers who were enjoined from striking.