Repentance. [Obs.] Wyclif (Luke xv. 7).
Pain; sorrow; suffering. [Obs.] "Joy or penance he feeleth none." Chaucer.
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.
To impose penance; to punish. "Some penanced lady elf." Keats.
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