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.
© Webster 1913.
Pen"ance, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Penanced (?).]
To impose penance; to punish.
"Some
penanced lady elf."
Keats.
© Webster 1913.