n. | 1. | Repentance. |
2. | Pain; sorrow; suffering. | |
3. | (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. | |
4. | Any act performed by a person to atone for an offense to another; an act of atonement. | |
v. t. | 1. | To impose penance; to punish. |
Noun | 1. | ![]() Synonyms: penitence, repentance |
2. | penance - a Catholic sacrament; repentance and confession and satisfaction and absolution | |
3. | penance - voluntary self-punishment in order to atone for some wrongdoing Synonyms: self-abasement, self-mortification |
PENANCE, eccl. law. An ecclesiastical punishment, inflicted by an ecclesiastical court, for some spiritual offence. Ayl. Par. 420.
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