shrift

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points: 12
Words With Friends: 11
Letters: 6

Pronunciation

/ʃɹɪft/

Definition of shrift

3 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

noun

(countable, uncountable)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; [...]”

See all 3 definitions

noun

(countable, uncountable)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; [...]”
(countable, uncountable)Confession to a priest.
(countable, obsolete, uncountable)Forgiveness given by a priest after confession; remission.

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

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

See full 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.