proscribe
part of speech
verb (proscribe, proscribes, proscribed, proscribing)
meaning for a pupil
1) (formal) To proscribe something is to forbid it officially, by a law or a rule. tree →
2) (formal, law) To proscribe a group or a person is to name them as banned or outlawed, so that joining or helping them is a crime. tree →
sense in the lessons
A stiff word of laws, rules and exam texts; a pupil meets it in history (books or groups that were proscribed), in school rules written in formal style and in news about banned organisations. It tells the reader that an authority has said «no» and that breaking it brings punishment. Phrases: «proscribed by law», «a proscribed group», «proscribed substances».
examples
- The rules proscribe the use of phones during the exam. tree →
- The old law proscribed meetings of more than ten people. tree →
- The government proscribed the group after the attacks. tree →
- Some books were proscribed in that country, so people read them in secret. tree →
- Doping is proscribed in all sports. tree →
- Running in the corridors is proscribed, the notice said, in very grown-up words. tree →
- Membership of a proscribed organisation is a crime. tree →
note
Regular verb: proscribed, proscribing; the noun is «proscription». Big trap: do not mix it up with «prescribe» (a doctor prescribes medicine = orders it to be used). Proscribe = forbid, prescribe = order or recommend; they are nearly opposites. In everyday talk people say «ban» or «forbid» instead.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «proscribe» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.