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a person or thing that ruins or spoils:
Gambling was the bane of his existence.
a deadly poison (often used in combination, as in the names of poisonous plants):
wolfsbane; henbane.
death; destruction; ruin.
Obsolete. that which causes death or destroys life:
entrapped and drowned beneath the watery bane.
Contemporary Examples

“What they are really doing is justifying their existence,” banes said.
Special Forces’ $77M ‘Hustler’ Hits Back Kevin Maurer December 7, 2014

Shadman transferred millions to banks outside Afghanistan in 2013 to buy property to open a business in Dubai, according to banes.
Special Forces’ $77M ‘Hustler’ Hits Back Kevin Maurer December 7, 2014

Historical Examples

I thought you were drowned in the water, or a’ your banes broken.
The Ladies Lindores, Vol. 2(of 3) Margaret Oliphant

O’Rourke snorted disgustedly: “Lave it to Bhoynton to shpill the banes!”
Terry Charles Goff Thomson

My certie, if the ill-set loon were to come up the road the noo, I wad thresh the very skin aff his banes!
The Surprising Adventures of Sir Toady Lion With Those of General Napoleon Smith S. R. Crockett

Leucorrhea is one of the banes of the modern girl and woman.
Woman William J. Robinson

Captain banes,” cried Brace excitedly, “give orders for the hatches to be taken off at once.
Old Gold George Manville Fenn

The next minute the mate was face to face with Captain banes.
Old Gold George Manville Fenn

Thirty-two thousand pineapples were shipped from banes in 1894.
Industrial Cuba Robert P. Porter

The mate did not stir till he had seen Captain banes on board.
Old Gold George Manville Fenn

noun
a person or thing that causes misery or distress (esp in the phrase bane of one’s life)
something that causes death or destruction

a fatal poison
(in combination): ratsbane

(archaic) ruin or distress
noun
a Scot word for bone
n.

Old English bana “killer, slayer, murderer; the devil,” from Proto-Germanic *banon, cognate with *banja- “wound” (cf. Old Frisian bona “murderer,” Old Norse bani, Old High German bana “murder,” Old English benn “wound,” Gothic banja “stroke, wound”), from PIE root *gwhen- “to strike, kill, wound” (cf. Avestan banta “ill”). Modern sense of “that which causes ruin or woe” is from 1570s.