repentance
(rɪˈpɛntəns)
Also 4–6 -aunce, (5 -aunse), 4 -anse, (5 -ans, -once), 6 -ence.
[a. F. repentance (12th c.): see repent v. and -ance, and cf. OSp. repentencia (13th c.).]
1. The act of repenting or the state of being penitent; sorrow, regret, or contrition for past action or conduct; an instance of this.
| 13.. Cursor M. 4958 (Gött.), Ȝour repentanse es comen ouer late. 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 5229 Wyþ sorow of herte and repentaunce Þou mayst pay God wyþ lytyl penaunce. c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iii. 1259 (1308) And at o word with-outen repentaunce Wel-come my knyght. 1447 O. Bokenham Seyntys (Roxb.) 9 She steryd the pepyl ever to repentaunce. 1509 Fisher Serm. C'tess Richmond Wks. (1876) 300 Wepynges & teares somtyme of deuocion somtyme of repentaunce. a 1591 H. Smith Serm. (1637) 220 Repentance is never too late, but it is a true saying, repentance is never too soon. 1601 B. Jonson Poetaster v. i, In time [they] should him fear, Lest after they buy repentance too dear. 1682 Sir T. Browne Chr. Mor. iii. §26 What patience could be content to..accept of repentances which must have after penitences, His goodness can only tell us. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 65 The Romish doctors reckon three stages in the passage from vice to virtue, attrition, contrition, and repentance. 1813 Shelley Q. Mab v. 246 Bitterness of soul, Pining regrets, and vain repentances. 1881 Besant & Rice Chapl. of Fleet I. 159 The morning is the time for repentance. |
b. personified.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 43 Þenne Ron Repentaunce and Rehersed þis teeme. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxxii. 133 Repentence ay with cheikis wait, No..pennence did eschew. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado ii. i. 81 Then comes repentance, and with his bad legs falls into the cinque-pace. 1798 Wordsw. Peter Bell Prol. xxx, Repentance is a tender Sprite. |
2. stool of († or for) repentance,
repentance-stool, a stool formerly placed in a conspicuous position in Scottish churches for the use of offenders (
esp. against chastity) making public repentance; also called
cutty-stool. So
repentance-gown. (
Cf. repenting vbl. n. b.)
| 1647 in Jrnl. Roy. Soc. Antiq. Ireland (1901) 271 To Adam M{supc}Neilis for dressing ye stoole of repentance, 02s. 5d. a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. xiii. §48 To stand publickly in the Stool of Repentance, acknowledging their former transgressions. 1690 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) II. 120 They are setting up the stool of repentance in their churches as formerly, where people guilty of incontinency are to doe pennance. c 1765 Collection Scot. Poems 68 Tague..told him, he behoved to do penance on the repentance stool. 1899 Andrews Church Life 112 The Synods specially enjoined on all parishes the procuring of a repentance-gown. |
| fig. a 1704 T. Brown Walk round London Wks. 1709 III. 34 When the Fumes of Melancholy or Wine set them on the Stool of Repentance. 1777 Sheridan Sch. Scand. ii. iii, He has been just half a year on the stool of repentance! 1884 Christian World 2 Oct. 737/1 The Times..seats itself as it were in shame on the stool of repentance. |
3. Herb of repentance, the plant rue. (
Cf. the
etym. note to
herb-grace.)
| 1858–9 Phytologist III. 207 This [the Herb-of-Grace] is not a native, but it is well known at the Old Bailey as the Herb-of-Repentance. |