'Penance' definitions:
Definition of 'penance'
(from WordNet)
noun
Remorse for your past conduct [syn: repentance, penitence, penance]
noun
A Catholic sacrament; repentance and confession and atonement and absolution
noun
Voluntary self-punishment in order to atone for some wrongdoing [syn: penance, self-mortification, self- abasement]
Definition of 'Penance'
From: GCIDE
- Penance \Pen"ance\, n. [OF. penance, peneance, L. paenitentia repentance. See Penitence.]
- 1. Repentance. [Obs.] --Wyclif (Luke xv. 7). [1913 Webster]
- 2. Pain; sorrow; suffering. [Obs.] "Joy or penance he feeleth none." --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
- 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. --Schaff-Herzog Encyc. [1913 Webster]
- And bitter penance, with an iron whip. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
- Quoth he, "The man hath penance done, And penance more will do." --Coleridge. [1913 Webster]
- 4. Hence: Any act performed by a person to atone for an offense to another; an act of atonement. [Colloq.] [PJC]
Definition of 'Penance'
From: GCIDE
- Penance \Pen"ance\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Penanced.] To impose penance; to punish. "Some penanced lady elf." --Keats. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'penance'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- abject apology,
- amends,
- apology,
- asceticism,
- atone,
- atonement,
- attrition,
- baptism,
- change of heart,
- cold purgatorial fires,
- compensation,
- compunction,
- confirmation,
- contrition,
- Day of Atonement,
- deathbed repentance,
- do penance,
- extreme unction,
- fasting,
- flagellation,
- hair shirt,
- heartfelt apology,
- holy orders,
- lustration,
- maceration,
- make amends,
- matrimony,
- mea culpa,
- mortification,
- pay,
- penal retribution,
- penalization,
- penalty,
- penitence,
- penitential act,
- penitential exercise,
- penitently,
- price,
- punishment,
- purgation,
- purgatory,
- reformation,
- regret,
- remorse,
- remorsefulness,
- reparation,
- repentance,
- rue,
- ruth,
- sackcloth and ashes,
- saeta,
- self-mortification,
- self-punishment,
- seven sacraments,
- suffer,
- suffering,
- the Eucharist,
- wearing a hairshirt,
- Yom Kippur