PENANCE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Penance

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/pˈɛnəns/ Listen

noun

Penance n.

Repentance. (Obs.)

Pain; sorrow; suffering. (Obs.) "Joy or penance he feeleth none."

(Eccl.) A means of repairing a sin committed, and obtaining pardon for it, consisting partly in the performance of expiatory rites, partly in voluntary submission to a punishment corresponding to the transgression, imposed by a confessor or other ecclesiastical authority. Penance is the fourth of seven sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church. "And bitter penance, with an iron whip." "Quoth he, "The man hath penance done, And penance more will do.""

Hence: Any act performed by a person to atone for an offense to another; an act of atonement. (Colloq.)

verb

Penance v. t. (past & past part. penanced) To impose penance; to punish. "Some penanced lady elf."

See images of 'Penance'

Etymology of 'Penance'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Penance" Quotes from Famous Books

... moon she is a wandering ghost, That walks in penance nightly; How sad she is, that wandering moon, For all she shines ...

— Night and Morning, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... beautifully and delightfully, and then he was still more troubled and said, "How joyously thou singest, the Lord is not angry with thee. Ah, if thou couldst but tell me how I can have offended him, that I might do penance, and then my heart also would be glad again." Then the bird began to speak and said, "Thou hast done injustice, in that thou hast condemned a poor sinner who was being led to the gallows, and for that the Lord is angry with thee. He alone sits ...

— Household Tales by Brothers Grimm • Grimm Brothers

... called upon with her aunt's cards and excuses, and an invitation for her Thursdays, somewhat too late to make the visit seem a welcome to New York. She was so coldly received, not so much for herself as in her quality of envoy, that her aunt experienced all the comfort which vicarious penance brings. She did not perhaps consider sufficiently her niece's guiltlessness in the expiation. Margaret was not with her at St. Barnaby in the fatal fortnight she passed there, and never saw the Leightons till she went ...

— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... cheek?" Sally queried. "One lump, Miss Gannion. I am still keeping up my Lenten penance, for I acquired the taste for it, and I can't bring myself back to the old extravagant ways. Next Lent, probably I shall mortify the ...

— The Dominant Strain • Anna Chapin Ray

... sayings he could think of, I uttered unto Medrawd the harshest I could devise. And therefore am I called Iddawc Cordd Prydain, for from this did the battle of Camlan ensue. And three nights before the end of the battle of Camlan I left them, and went to the Llech Las in North Britain to do penance. And there I remained doing penance seven years, and after that ...

— The Mabinogion • Lady Charlotte Guest

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