Bane

really means ruin, death, or destruction (Anglo-Saxon, bana, a murderer); and “I will be his bane,” means I will ruin or murder him. Bane is, therefore, a mortal injury.

“My bane and antidote are both before it.

This [sword] in a moment brings me to an end.

But this [Plato] assures me I shall never die.”

Addison: Cato.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.