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 ] | 
