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

But,' he said, 'is it not needful to the lay people that cannot thus do, to go shrive them to priests?'

From Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse by Various

By our Lady, I will go with you!" he cried, "to shrive the dying.

From Corse de Leon, Volume I (of 2) or, The Brigand; a Romance by James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)

"Who will shrive these poor fellows, then, if you have turned your back upon them?" asked Midge, reproachfully.

From Robin Hood by Wyeth, N. C. (Newell Convers)

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

From The "Genius" by Dreiser, Theodore

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

From Time Magazine Archive

"I shrived her, your Grace, before she died."

From By What Authority? by Benson, Robert Hugh

A low whisper, occasionally sounding,-assured her that someone was at the confessional; and soon the palmer, who was now shrived, knelt at her side.

From Sketches by Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield

I do, indeed, know the lady," he said, "and even when last at court, on this errand of Colon's, their own confessor being ill, I shrived her, as well as my royal mistress.

From Mercedes of Castile The Voyage to Cathay by Cooper, J. Fenimore

I paid my dues, and shrived me clean, and lived honestly.

From The White Lady of Hazelwood A Tale of the Fourteenth Century by Rainey, W. (William)

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

As he galloped away, Hamlet cried after him, “Make haste in your errand, for remember, I will be shriven today.”

From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein

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

From Time Magazine Archive

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

From Time Magazine Archive

A padre visited them yearly, christening the babes, marrying the youth, shriving the penitent, and saying masses for the repose of the souls of the departed.

From A Texas Matchmaker by Adams, Andy

To the dames of Avignon All the masters go for wiving; To the dames of Avignon— That shall be their shriving!

From A Night in Avignon by Rice, Cale Young

"Charles treats us as mendicants; but if he should chance to see the coffers of our order, he would know we had received something else beside a crust for shriving."

From Mistress Penwick by Payne, Dutton

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

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)

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