ˌpɹəʊ(h)ɪˈbɪʃən ˌpɹoʊ(h)ɪˈbɪʃən pɹəˈskɹɪp.ʃən the action of prohibiting or inhibiting or forbidding (or an instance thereof) they were restrained by a prohibition in their charter a medical inhibition of alcoholic beverages he ignored his parents' forbiddance a law forbidding the sale of alcoholic beverages in 1920 the 18th amendment to the Constitution established prohibition in the US a decree that prohibits something refusal to approve or assent to the period from 1920 to 1933 when the sale of alcoholic beverages was prohibited in the United States by a constitutional amendment