This should be an easy question. I’m trying to think of a specific word that basically means “prohibition”. The connotation of the word is that the prohibition is coming from an official agency of the government and is possibly temporary. For example, if ground beef from a meat packing plant were found to be contaminated with salmonella, the FDA would issue an immediate _____ on the sale of meat from that plant. Can anybody read my mind better than I can I come up with the word I’m trying to think of?
I think that I have the phrasing slightly wrong. You would say that “The FDA is putting a ______ on the sale of the meat”.
Ban?
I just got it. I was looking for “moratorium”.
ban
First thought, ban. Second thought, moratorium.
dammit
I’d suggest a moratorium on ban.
Restraint (order)?
This is a very good example of why thesauruses (thesauri? thesaura? (they certainly seem neuter…)) don’t actually work very well. “Moratorium” has built into it the notion that the prohibition in temporary, so it works perfectly for this case in a way that “ban” doesn’t. Full synonymy is – if not nonexistent – at least very, very rare.
Kibosh.
In New Zealand it would be a taboo.
Ban seems appropriate for your sentence.
“The FDA pronounced an anathema on meat from the plant”.
Embargo.
freeze
hold
Just one hit.
Funny enough that “moratorium” (the word the OP was thinking of) wasn’t on the list!
I tried thesaurus.com but neither “ban” nor “prohibition” came up with moratorium despite several pages of results. Quite annoying, which was why I turned to the SDMB.
No. I’m not altogether sure that moratorium has the right feel to it.
Not saying that it is wrong but I don’t think I would have used it.
Perhaps this sounds better:
“The FDA has placed a moratorium on the sale of the meat”
rather than
“The FDA is putting a moratorium on the sale of the meat”
I agree with that. The line scans far better.