Penance

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. Repentance. [Obs.] Wyclif (Luke xv. 7).

2. Pain; sorrow; suffering. [Obs.] "Joy or penance he feeleth none." Chaucer.

3. 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. Penance is the fourth of seven sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church. Schaff-Herzog Encyc. And bitter penance, with an iron whip. Spenser. Quoth he, "The man hath penance done, And penance more will do." Coleridge.

Part of speech: verb (v.)

To impose penance; to punish. "Some penanced lady elf." Keats.