What does shrive mean?
Shrive is an old verb connected with Christian confession and absolution. In its traditional religious sense, it means to hear a person's confession and pronounce or grant forgiveness for their sins. The word can also mean to confess one's own sins, although this use is now chiefly archaic or literary. Its best-known expressions are 'shrive a penitent,' meaning to hear someone's confession and absolve them, and 'shrive oneself,' meaning to confess one's own sins. Shrive comes from an Old English word related to a wider European family of words associated with writing and confession. Today it is encountered mainly in historical writing, religious texts, and deliberately traditional language, where it carries a solemn and old-fashioned tone.
To hear a person's confession and pronounce or grant absolution for their sins.
"The priest shrived the dying man."
Archaic, religious, and literary; usually transitive.
To confess one's sins.
"He went to the priest to shrive."
Archaic or literary, especially when used reflexively.
Once a solemn religious act, shrive now survives mainly in phrases that preserve the language of confession and absolution.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does shrive come from?
Shrive derives from Old English scrīfan, meaning to confess, and ultimately belongs to a Germanic root associated with writing and confession. The verb is related in origin to words in other Germanic languages meaning to write, while Latin scribere, the source of English scribe, script, and scripture, reflects a related tradition of writing down or confessing. In modern English, the form is chiefly archaic, preserving the vocabulary of confessional religion.
Related word forms
How shrive is actually used
Shrive is now archaic or literary in most contexts. The traditional English past tense is shrove and the past participle is shriven, although shriven is also used adjectivally in the phrase 'shriven soul.'
Easily confused with shrive
Shrive is a religious verb meaning to hear a confession and grant absolution, whereas strive means to make repeated efforts toward a goal.