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itent; the disposition of a penitent; sorrow for sins or faults; repentance; contrition. "Penitence of his old guilt." Chaucer. Death is deferred, and penitenance has room To mitigate, if not reverse, the doom. Dryden.

A priest who heard confession and enjoined penance in extraordinary cases. [Written also penitenser.] [Obs.] Chaucer.

refusal to repent; hardness of heart. He will advance from one degree of wickedness and impenitence to another. Rogers.

Broken down with grief and penitence; deeply sorrowful for sin because it is displeasing to God; humbly and thoroughly penitent. A contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Ps. li. 17. Be penitent, and for thy fault contrite. Milton.

Deep sorrow and penitence for sin; contrition.

g contrite; deep sorrow and repentance for sin, because sin is displeasing to God; humble penitence; through repentance. My future days shall be one whole contrition. Dryden.

or the mortification of the body or appetites, or as a token of grief, or humiliation and penitence. Thou didst fast and weep for the child. 2 Sam. xii. 21. Fasting day, a fast day; a day of fasting.

Impenitence. Milton.

Want of repentance; impenitence. Bp. Montagu.

Penitence. [Obs.]

Of or pertaining to penitence, or to penance; expressing penitence; of the nature of penance; as, the penitential book; penitential tears. "Penitential stripes." Cowper. Guilt that all the penitential fires of hereafter can not cleanse. Sir W. Scott.

Expressive of penitence; as, a penitentiary letter.

coarse cloth; anciently, a cloth or garment worn in mourning, distress, mortification, or penitence. Gird you with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner. 2 Sam. iii. 31. Thus with sackcloth I invest my woe. Sandys.

Seeing that; because; considering; -- formerly followed by that. Since that my penitence comes after all, Imploring pardon. Shak. Since truth and constancy are vain, Since neither love, nor sense of pain, Nor force of reason, can persuade, Then let example be obeyed. Granville.

The state of being unconverted; impenitence. [R.]

Impenitence. [R.]

hence, to return by the weeping cross, to return from some undertaking in humiliation or penitence. -- Weeping rock, a porous rock from which water gradually issues. -- Weeping sinew, a ganglion. See Ganglion, n., 2. [Colloq.] -- Weeping spring, a spring that discharges water slowly. -- Weeping willow (Bot.), a spe…