A-nāth'e-mā, n.

n.; pl. ANATHEMAS. [Lat. anathēma and anathēma, Gr. ἀνάθεμα, any thing devoted, esp. to evil, ἀνάθημα, a votive offering set up in temples, from ἀνατίθημι, to set up as a votive gift, to dedicate, from ἀνά, up, and τίθημι, to set.]

1. (Antiq.) An offering or present made to some deity, and hung up in a temple. Wm. Smith.
2. A ban or curse pronounced with religious solemnity by ecclesiastical authority, and accompanied by excommunication.

Though eighty thousand college councils Thunder anathema, friend, at you. Tennyson. 3. Any person or thing anathematized, or cursed by ecclesiastical authority. The Jewish nation were an anathema destined to destruction. St. Paul . . . says he could wish, to save them from it, to become an anathema, and be destroyed himself. Locke.