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shrift

noun
/ʃɹɪft/US

Etymology

From Middle English shrift (“confession to a priest; act or instance of this; sacrament of penance; penance assigned by a priest; penitence, repentance; punishment for sin”) [and other forms], from Old English sċrift (“penance, shrift; something prescribed as punishment, penalty; one who passes sentence, a judge”), from sċrīfan (“of a priest: to prescribe absolution or penance; to pass judgment, ordain, prescribe; to appoint, decree”) (whence shrive), from Proto-Germanic *skrībaną (“to write”), from Latin scrībō (“to write”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kreybʰ- (“to scratch, tear”). Equivalent to shrive + -t.

  1. derived from *(s)kreybʰ-✻ — “to scratch, tear”
  2. derived from scrībō — “to write”
  3. inherited from *skrībaną✻ — “to write”
  4. inherited from sċrift — “penance, shrift; something prescribed as punishment, penalty; one who passes sentence, a judge”
  5. inherited from shrift — “confession to a priest; act or instance of this; sacrament of penance; penance assigned by a priest; penitence, repentance; punishment for sin”

Definitions

  1. The act of going to or hearing a religious confession.

    • For seldom did she go to chapel-shrift, / And seldom felt she any hunger-pain; [...]

  2. Confession to a priest.

  3. Forgiveness given by a priest after confession

    Forgiveness given by a priest after confession; remission.

    • [Friar:] Be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift. / Riddling confession finds but riddling shrift.

The neighborhood

Derived

earshrift, short shrift, shrift father, shriftfather

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for shrift. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA