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shrive

Archaic Terms
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

To hear confession of sins and grant absolution as a priest; to confess one's sins to obtain forgiveness; related to the sacrament of penance and reconciliation.

Detailed Definition
“Shrive” frames spiritual cleansing—“ere I shrive me.” In religious poetry, it marks preparation for death or renewal. The term’s weight suits penitential tone. Poets use it to explore guilt and grace, where shriving restores order, reinforcing themes of redemption, secrecy, and divine mercy in meditative and dramatic contexts.
Example
Example in poetry:
“He went to shrive before the battle,” in a chivalric custom; In Shakespeare’s Henry V: “Not today, O Lord, / O, not today, think not upon the fault / My father made in compassing the crown!... / I Richard’s body have interrèd new, / And on it have bestowed more contrite tears / Than from it issued forced drops of blood... / Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay, / Who twice a day their withered hands hold up / Toward heaven, to pardon blood; and I have built / Two chantries, where the sad and solemn priests / Sing still for Richard’s soul. More will I do; / Though all that I can do is nothing worth, / Since that my penitence comes after all, / Imploring pardon”—a form of shriving; “She sought to shrive her soul of secret sin”; “The priest would not shrive the unrepentant”; “Shrive thy heart before thou judgest others”; The dying man was shriven at midnight.
Additional Notes
“Shrive” is central to Catholic penitential practice; in devotional or confessional poetry, “shriven souls” attain grace, while unshriven deaths imply damnation—making it a key term in moral and eschatological frameworks.
Also Known As
confess absolve
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