BANNS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does banns mean? 

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

1. a public announcement of a proposed marriage

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• BANNS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A public announcement of a proposed marriage

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

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

announcement; promulgation (a public statement containing information about an event that has happened or is going to happen)

Domain category:

church; church service (a service conducted in a house of worship)

 Context examples 

The idea of Edward's being a clergyman, and living in a small parsonage-house, diverted him beyond measure;—and when to that was added the fanciful imagery of Edward reading prayers in a white surplice, and publishing the banns of marriage between John Smith and Mary Brown, he could conceive nothing more ridiculous.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Of course I knew what they were referring to, but I wasn't even vaguely engaged. The fact that gossip had published the banns was one of the reasons I had come east. You can't stop going with an old friend on account of rumors and on the other hand I had no intention of being rumored into marriage.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)