An official prohibition or edict against something.

synonyms: ban, banning, forbiddance.

Harshly uninviting or formidable in manner or appearance:
— A forbidding scowl.

synonyms: dour, grim.

Roget 761: prohibitive, prohibitory; proscriptive; restrictive, exclusive; forbidding etc. v.. prohibited etc. v.; not permitted etc. 760; unlicensed, contraband, impermissible, under the ban of; illegal etc. 964; unauthorized, not to be thought of, uncountenanced, unthinkable, beyond the pale.    ... show more

Roget 846: ugly, ugly as sin, ugly as a toad, ugly as a scarecrow, ugly as a dead monkey; plain, bald (unadorned) 849; homely; ordinary, unornamental^†, inartistic; unsightly, unseemly, uncomely, unlovely; unshapely; sightless, seemless^†; not fit to be seen; unbeauteous^†, unbeautiful; beautiless^†, semibeautiful; shapeless etc. (amorphous) 241.    misshapen, misproportioned^†; monstrous; gaunt etc. (thin) 203; dumpy etc. (short) 201; curtailed of its fair proportions; ill-made, ill-shaped, ill-proportioned; crooked etc. (distorted) 243; hard featured, hard visaged; ill-favored, hard-favored, evil-favored; ill-looking; unprepossessing, unattractive, uninviting, unpleasing.    graceless, inelegant; ungraceful, ungainly, uncouth, stiff; rugged, rough, gross, rude, awkward, clumsy, slouching, rickety; gawky; lumping, lumpish^†; lumbering; hulky^†, hulking; unwieldy.    squalid, haggard; grim, grim faced, grim visaged; grisly, ghastly; ghost like, death like; cadaverous, grewsome^†, gruesome.    frightful, hideous, odious, uncanny, forbidding; repellant, repulsive, repugnant, grotesque, bizarre; grody [Coll.], grody to the max [Coll.]; horrid, horrible; shocking etc. (painful) 830.    foul etc. (dirty) 653; dingy etc. (colorless) 429; gaudy etc. (color) 428; disfigured etc. v.; discolored.    ... show more

Threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments:
— Forbidding thunderclouds.

synonyms: baleful, menacing, minacious, minatory, ominous, sinister, threatening.

Command against:
— I forbid you to call me late at night.

synonyms: disallow, interdict, nix, prohibit, proscribe, veto.

Roget 761: prohibit, inhibit; forbid, put one's veto upon, disallow, enjoin, ban, outlaw, taboo, proscribe, estop [Law]; bar; debar etc. (hinder) 706, forefend.    keep in, keep within bounds; restrain etc. 751; cohibit^†, withhold, limit, circumscribe, clip the wings of, restrict; interdict, taboo; put under an interdiction, place under an interdiction; put under the ban, place under the ban; proscribe; exclude, shut out; shut the door, bolt the door, show the door; warn off; dash the cup from one's lips; forbid the banns.    ... show more

Dutch: verbannen, niet toestaan, [[niet]] [[toestaan]], afraden, vernietigen, afkeuren, verbieden

Keep from happening or arising; make impossible:
— My sense of tact forbids an honest answer.

synonyms: foreclose, forestall, preclude, prevent.

Dutch: verhinderen