shrive

American  

[shrahyv] / ʃraɪv /

verb (used with object)

shrove, shrived, shriven, shrived, shriving

1. to impose penance on (a sinner).

2. to grant absolution to (a penitent).

3. to hear the confession of (a person).

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verb (used without object)

Archaic.

shrove, shrived, shriven, shrived, shriving

1. to hear confessions.

2. to go to or make confession; confess one's sins, as to a priest.

shrive British  

/ ʃraɪv /

verb

1. to hear the confession of (a penitent)

2. (tr) to impose a penance upon (a penitent) and grant him sacramental absolution

3. (intr) to confess one's sins to a priest in order to obtain sacramental forgiveness

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Other Word Forms

• shriver
  noun
• unshrived
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of shrive

First recorded before 900; Middle English shriven, schrifen, Old English scrīfan “to prescribe, impose a penance on (a penitent),” cognate with German schreiben “to write,” ultimately from Latin scrībere “to write, draw”; see scribe ¹

Explanation

To shrive is to hear someone's confession and forgive them. It's not easy, but once your brother has admitted to reading your diary and apologized, it's best to shrive him and move on. Though this verb is mainly considered to be archaic, you may occasionally come across it in the context of a Catholic priest absolving someone of sin. You can also shrive yourself by laying your sins or misdeeds on the table, in hopes of absolution and forgiveness: "After my friend was blamed for stealing those cookies, I decided to shrive myself and promise never to do it again."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

shrive shrived shriven shriving shrove

No play to make first-night audiences shrive themselves for past sins is American Landscape.

From Time Magazine Archive

Priests might shrive for broken laws, but for a broken heart what remedy was there?

From The "Genius" by Dreiser, Theodore

And do you, father,” he added to Garnet, “proceed to shrive him.”

From Guy Fawkes or The Gunpowder Treason by Ainsworth, William Harrison

Thus shall we rest for evermore, My brothers dear and I: Haste, cleric, haste, baptise and shrive, For death at last is nigh!

From Old Celtic Romances by Unknown

Comest thou hither to shrive me to-night, ere thou doomest me to the wheel to-morrow?

From The Childhood of King Erik Menved An Historical Romance by Ingemann, Bernhard Severin

The dying man's ears, nose, mouth, hands, feet by holy unction were shrived.

From Time Magazine Archive

Coronach shall wail for thee; Get thee shrived and get thee blest, Get thee ready for thy rest, Elleree!

From Verses for Children and Songs for Music by Ewing, Juliana Horatia Gatty

I shrived him, And he since has died.

From Olla Podrida by Marryat, Frederick

The messenger of Carlo Giuntotardi found this unfortunate man with his confessor, by whom he had just been shrived.

From The Wing-and-Wing Le Feu-Follet by Cooper, James Fenimore

On Sunday morning mass was said, and men shrived them.

From The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 07 by Johnson, Rossiter

Then I grab the lever, record myself with a manly fling, and walk out, shriven, to go to work.

From The New Yorker ● Nov. 5, 2018

I mean the midlife crisis story, in which a man suddenly finds himself shriven of the beliefs that have hitherto defined him.

From New York Times ● Feb. 15, 2017

But 30,000ft above the Atlantic, he is seized by the need to be shriven, and makes his confession to a cassette recorder he addresses as "Father Sony".

From The Guardian ● Feb. 21, 2011

She died, still pregnant, but properly shriven, and within a minute Dr. Corbit had her abdomen open and a 34-lb. girl in an incubator.

From Time Magazine Archive

So we may well believe that the King’s men were shriven on the night before they fought Something of the young man’s vision had penetrated to his captains and his soldiers.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

For Italy's 45,000,000 people, surrender came as a national shriving, a chance for national redemption.

From Time Magazine Archive

There are those who suggest irreverently that Miss Nichols is shriving herself before the critics by importing accredited Art.

From Time Magazine Archive

When I lack shriving, I will go to a priest.

From One Snowy Night Long ago at Oxford by Irwin, M. (Madelaine)

From some of the fires, round which the marsh men were sitting, came snatches of boisterous song, while here and there, apart from the crowd, priests were hearing confessions, and shriving penitents.

From The Dragon and the Raven by Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)

But sometimes he stopped, and bent his head to listen, then lifted his hand in absolution; and Mark knew he was shriving another poor soul.

From Charred Wood by Shepherd, J. Clinton

It was I who shrove him when he lay dying of his wounds, and a nobler soul never passed from earth to heaven.

From The Brethren by Haggard, Henry Rider

But the neighbouring wives, Who ne'er shrove in their lives,— Such wickedness Sathanas whispers!—

From The Baron's Yule Feast: A Christmas Rhyme by Cooper, Thomas

To be shriven, or shrove, means to obtain absolution from one's sin.

From Old English Sports, Pastimes and Customs by Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)

Shrovetide was, in times gone by, a season of such mirth that shroving, or to shrove, signified to be merry.

From Folk-lore of Shakespeare by Thiselton-Dyer, Thomas Firminger