Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Sincere remorse for wrongdoing; repentance. synonym: penitence.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The act of grinding or rubbing to powder; attrition.
- noun Brokenness of spirit for having given offense; deep sorrow for sin or guilt; pious compunction; sincere penitence.
- noun Synonyms Penitence, Compunction, etc. See
repentance .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun obsolete The act of grinding or ribbing to powder; attrition; friction; rubbing.
- noun The state of being contrite; deep sorrow and repentance for sin, because sin is displeasing to God; humble penitence; through repentance.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The state of being
contrite ; sincerepenitence or remorse. - noun The act of grinding or rubbing to powder; attrition; friction; rubbing.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun sorrow for sin arising from fear of damnation
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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'By that account,' said Lady Anne, 'which I believe to be just, her contrition is always ten times as great as her offence.'
Belinda 1801
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BTW, "contrition" is precisely what rankles for most of the naysayers.
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The expression of contrition from Mr. Shimizu came a day after the Japanese government raised its assessment of the nuclear crisis to 7, the highest on an international scale, from 5.
Tepco Plans Compensation Payments Kana Inagaki 2011
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The apology arrived 25 days after the incident, and Barrichello took delivery of it on his mobile phone, but it still counts as a rare act of contrition from the German.
Michael Schumacher sorry for putting squeeze on Rubens Barrichello Paul Weaver at Spa 2010
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I have yet to hear any acts of contrition from the media or people like Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, who i held in passable esteem for what they said and why they said it.
Mind The Gap « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2008
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In contrast, and in contrition, I must highly recommend an excellent traditional platformer that recently became available on Virtual Console; I didn't pick it up until last night.
Archive 2008-03-01 SVGL 2008
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Of course, asking Rose to dive headfirst into an act of contrition is like asking Anaheim Angels pitchers to feed dead-red fastballs to Bonds.
USATODAY.com - Time for Selig to relent, cut deal with Rose 2002
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Rocker's apparent contrition is merely a signal that another episode is on the way.
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What we call contrition is often only imperfect contrition -- that is, sorrow for our sins because we fear their punishment in Hell or dread the loss of Heaven.
Baltimore Catechism No. 4 (of 4) An Explanation of the Baltimore Catechism of Christian Doctrine Thomas L. Kinkead
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The word contrition itself in a moral sense is not of frequent occurrence in
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 4: Clandestinity-Diocesan Chancery 1840-1916 1913
logophile commented on the word contrition
‘Do I see a Penitent, or a Criminal?’ She said at length; ‘Are those hands raised in contrition for your crimes, or in fear of meeting their punishment? Do those tears acknowledge the justice of your doom, or only solicit mitigation of your sufferings? I fear me, ’tis the latter!’
-The Prioress in Lewis' The Monk
February 9, 2008
gangerh commented on the word contrition
'Lots of hot water, Mrs Malaprop. Her contritions are feeling more intense.'
July 24, 2008