forgiveness

noun

1. (uncountable, usually)The action of forgiving.

   “He begged for forgiveness after being caught stealing from the shop.”

   “At the end of a week, she could bear the suspense no longer, and so went humbly to her old home and sought forgiveness.”

   “It was not a war party, so it surely was men who came to ask for peace and forgiveness.”

   “But Oh! what anguish can more poignant be Than of the heart which vainly longs to plead Forgiveness from the dead? Shall the dead heed?”

   “Some devout Christians are among the most fervent advocates of the death penalty, contradicting Jesus Christ and misinterpreting Holy Scriptures and numerous examples of mercy. We remember God’s forgiveness of Cain, who killed Abel, and the adulterer King David, who arranged the killing of Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, his lover.”

2. (uncountable, usually)A readiness to forgive.

   “If thou, Lord, shouldest marke iniquities: O Lord, who shal stand? But there is forgiuenesse with thee: that thou mayest be feared.”

   “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”