n. [ OF. penance, peneance, L. paenitentia repentance. See Penitence. ] 1. Repentance. [ Obs. ] Wyclif (Luke xv. 7). [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Pain; sorrow; suffering. [ Obs. ] “Joy or penance he feeleth none.” Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Eccl.) A means of repairing a sin committed, and obtaining pardon for it, consisting partly in the performance of expiatory rites, partly in voluntary submission to a punishment corresponding to the transgression, imposed by a confessor or other ecclesiastical authority. Penance is the fourth of seven sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church. Schaff-Herzog Encyc. [ 1913 Webster ]

And bitter penance, with an iron whip. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

Quoth he, “The man hath penance done,
And penance more will do.” Coleridge. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Hence: Any act performed by a person to atone for an offense to another; an act of atonement. [ Colloq. ] [ PJC ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Penanced ] To impose penance; to punish. “Some penanced lady elf.” Keats. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Free from penance. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Prob. fr. Malay pīnang līar. ] A kind of walking stick made from the stem of an East Asiatic palm (Licuala acutifida). [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

[ From the native name. ] (Bot.) The betel nut. Balfour (Cyc. of India). [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. pene, paene, almost + E. annular. ] Nearly annular; having nearly the form of a ring. “Penannular relics.” D. Wilson. [ 1913 Webster ]