The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Prohibition \Pro`hi*bi"tion\, n.
   The period of 1920 to 1932 in the United States, during which
   sale of alcoholic beverages were forbidden by the
   consitution.
   [PJC]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Prohibition \Pro`hi*bi"tion\, n. [L. prohibitio: cf. F.
   prohibition.]
   1. The act of prohibiting; a declaration or injunction
      forbidding some action; interdict.
      [1913 Webster]

            The law of God, in the ten commandments, consists
            mostly of prohibitions.               --Tillotson.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Specifically, the forbidding by law of the sale of
      alcoholic liquors as beverages.
      [1913 Webster]

   Writ of prohibition (Law), a writ issued by a superior
      tribunal, directed to an inferior court, commanding the
      latter to cease from the prosecution of a suit depending
      before it. --Blackstone.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: By ellipsis, prohibition is used for the writ itself.
         [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

prohibition
    n 1: a law forbidding the sale of alcoholic beverages; "in 1920
         the 18th amendment to the Constitution established
         prohibition in the US"
    2: a decree that prohibits something [syn: prohibition, ban,
       proscription]
    3: the period from 1920 to 1933 when the sale of alcoholic
       beverages was prohibited in the United States by a
       constitutional amendment [syn: prohibition, prohibition
       era]
    4: refusal to approve or assent to
    5: 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" [syn:
       prohibition, inhibition, forbiddance]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

79 Moby Thesaurus words for "prohibition":
   Eighteenth Amendment, Volstead Act, arrest, arrestation, ban,
   banning, bar, barring, blockade, boycott, check, circumscription,
   constraint, control, cooling, cooling down, cooling off, curb,
   curtailment, debarment, debarring, deceleration, demarcation,
   determent, deterrence, disallowance, disallowing, discouragement,
   embargo, estoppel, exception, exclusion, forbiddance, foreclosure,
   forestalling, halt, hindrance, inadmissibility, inhibition,
   injunction, interdict, interdicting, interdiction, legal restraint,
   lockout, monopoly, narrowing, nonadmission, obviation, omission,
   outlawing, outlawry, preclusion, prevention, prohibitionism,
   proscribing, proscription, protection, protectionism,
   protective tariff, rationing, rein, rejection, relegation,
   repudiation, restraint, restraint of trade, restriction,
   retardation, retrenchment, self-control, slowing down, stay, stop,
   stoppage, stopping, taboo, tariff wall, thought control



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

PROHIBITION, practice. The name of a writ issued by a superior court,
directed to the judge and parties of a suit in an inferior court, commanding
them to cease from the prosecution of the same, upon a suggestion that the
cause originally, or some collateral matter arising therein, does not belong
to that jurisdiction, but to the cognizance of some other court. 3 Bl. Com.
112; Com. Dig. h.t.; Bac. Ab. h.t. Saund. Index, h.t.; Vin. Ab. h.t.; 2
Sell. Pr. 308; Ayliffe's Parerg. 434; 2 Hen. Bl.
     2. The writ of prohibition may also be issued when, having
jurisdiction, the court has attempted to proceed by rules differing from
those which ought to be observed; Bull. N. P. 219; or when, by the exercise
of its jurisdiction, the inferior court would defeat a legal right. 2 Chit.
Pr. 355.