Hypertext Webster Gateway: "penance"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Penance \Pen"ance\, n. [OF. penance, peneance, L. paenitentia
repentance. See {Penitence}.]
1. Repentance. [Obs.] --Wyclif (Luke xv. 7).
2. Pain; sorrow; suffering. [Obs.] ``Joy or penance he
feeleth none.'' --Chaucer.
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. Penance is the fourth of seven sacraments
in the Roman Catholic Church. --Schaff-Herzog Encyc.
And bitter penance, with an iron whip. --Spenser.
Quoth he, ``The man hath penance done, And penance
more will do.'' --Coleridge.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Penance \Pen"ance\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Penanced}.]
To impose penance; to punish. ``Some penanced lady elf.''
--Keats.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
penance
n 1: remorse for your past conduct [syn: {repentance}, {penitence}]
2: a Catholic sacrament; repentance and confession and
satisfaction and absolution
3: voluntary self-punishment in order to atone for some
wrongdoing [syn: {self-mortification}, {self-abasement}]
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