Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Shrift; the act of one who shrives, or (as a priest) hears confession.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Shrift; confession.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Third-person singular simple present indicative form of shrive.
  • noun The hearing of a confession of sins.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The tradition of making pancakes on Shrove Tuesday stretches back to about Tudor times, a good 500 years after the notion of "shriving" - or confessing to sins - became part of popular religious practice on the last day before the start of Lent.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2011

  • Before the Reformation, the church bell called a shriving bell tolled on Shrove Tuesday to call people to church.

    Celebration Breads BETSY OPPENNEER 2003

  • Before the Reformation, the church bell called a shriving bell tolled on Shrove Tuesday to call people to church.

    Celebration Breads BETSY OPPENNEER 2003

  • Before the Reformation, the church bell called a shriving bell tolled on Shrove Tuesday to call people to church.

    Celebration Breads BETSY OPPENNEER 2003

  • (in which I include psychoanalysis), the idea of shriving oneself of fears and other besetting difficulties has its roots -- as far as Western culture is concerned -- in the confessional, though it seems likely that reflexes of that procedure could be discovered in profound Eastern religions if not in shamanistic practices.

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XVIII No 1 1991

  • While I still found it difficult to admit that I might be in serious danger of death, I was beginning to understand the instinct that made condemned prisoners seek shriving on the eve of execution.

    Sick Cycle Carousel 2010

  • If he has no intention of shriving a sinner but still says and does all that the Church requires, how could the penitent know that it was an "imitation absolution"?

    Motu Proprio "Ecclesiae Unitatem" - in English 2009

  • It is the day for clearing your cupboards of eggs and butter (historically both forbidden, along with other foods such as meat, during Lent), and for shriving (confessing sins and asking forgiveness).

    Shrove Tuesday Pancake Festival, Hitchin 2008 2008

  • When the race is over, the runners, officials, townsfolk, and visitors all go to the parish church for the shriving service.

    Celebration Breads BETSY OPPENNEER 2003

  • When the race is over, the runners, officials, townsfolk, and visitors all go to the parish church for the shriving service.

    Celebration Breads BETSY OPPENNEER 2003

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