Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- the act of prohibiting.
- the legal prohibiting of the manufacture and sale of alcoholic drinks for common consumption.
- (often initial capital letter) the period (1920–33) when the Eighteenth Amendment was in force and alcoholic beverages could not legally be manufactured, transported, or sold in the U.S.
- a law or decree that forbids.
noun
- the period (1920–33) when the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors was banned by constitutional amendment in the US
noun
- the act of prohibiting or state of being prohibited
- an order or decree that prohibits
- (sometimes capital) (esp in the US) a policy of legally forbidding the manufacture, transportation, sale, or consumption of alcoholic beverages except for medicinal or scientific purposes
- law an order of a superior court (in Britain the High Court) forbidding an inferior court to determine a matter outside its jurisdiction
late 14c., “act of prohibiting, a forbidding by authority,” from Anglo-French and Old French prohibition (early 13c.), from Latin prohibitionem (nominative prohibitio) “a hindering, forbidding; legal prohibition,” noun of action from past participle stem of prohibere “hold back, restrain, hinder, prevent,” from pro- “away, forth” (see pro-) + habere “to hold” (see habit). Meaning “forced alcohol abstinence” is 1851, American English; in effect nationwide in U.S. as law 1920-1933 under the Volstead Act.
People whose youth did not coincide with the twenties never had our reverence for strong drink. Older men knew liquor before it became the symbol of a sacred cause. Kids who began drinking after 1933 take it as a matter of course. … Drinking, we proved to ourselves our freedom as individuals and flouted Congress. We conformed to a popular type of dissent — dissent from a minority. It was the only period during which a fellow could be smug and slopped concurrently. [A.J. Liebling, “Between Meals,” 1959]
Related: Prohibitionist.
The outlawing of alcoholic beverages nationwide from 1920 to 1933, under an amendment to the Constitution. The amendment, enforced by the Volstead Act, was repealed by another amendment to the Constitution in 1933.