Word.ws English Dictionary

shrive

/ˈʃɹaɪv/

shrive verb: to hear or receive a confession (of sins etc.).

Verb

shrive (third-person singular simple present shrives, present participle shriving, simple past shrove or shrived, past participle shriven or shrived)

  1. (intransitive, transitive) To hear or receive a confession (of sins etc.).
    • If he have the condition of a saint and the complexion of a devil, I had rather he should shrive me than wive me.c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • Doubtless he shrives this woman, […] / Else ne'er could he so long protract his speech.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  2. (transitive) To free from guilt, to absolve.
    • I will not madly deem that power
      Of Earth may shrive me of the sin
      Unearthly pride hath revell’d in— […]1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems
    • My sins as scarlet are; let me go hence, / And in some cloister's school of penitence, / Across those stones, that pave the way to heaven, / Walk barefoot, till my guilty soul is shriven!1863 November 23, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Sicilian’s Tale. King Robert of Sicily.”, in Tales of a Wayside Inn, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 67
  3. (transitive) To prescribe penance or absolution.
  4. (intransitive, reflexive) To confess, and receive absolution.
    • 'Twas a good thought, boy, to come here and shrive.c. 1798-1845, unknown author, The Croppy Boy

Proper noun capitalized: Shrive

Shrive

  1. A surname.

shrive meaning in Kannada

shrive in Kannada

ತಪ್ಪೊಪ್ಪಿಕೆ ಪಡೆ

Forms of shrive

third-person singular presentshrives
present participleshriving
pastshrove
pastshrived
past participleshriven
past participleshrived
alternative form (obsolete)shrieve

Origin of shrive

From Middle English schryven, from Old English sċrīfan (“1. to decree, pass judgement, prescribe, 3. (of a priest) to prescribe penance or absolution”), from Proto-West Germanic *skrīban, from late Proto-Germanic *skrībaną, a borrowing from Latin scrībō (“write”). Compare West Frisian skriuwe (“to write”), Low German schrieven (“to write”), Dutch schrijven (“to write”), German schreiben (“to write”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk skrive (“to write”), Swedish skriva (“to write”), Icelandic skrifa (“to write”). More at scribe and scribble.

Words formed from shrive

Words that rhyme with shrive

34 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about shrive

What does shrive mean?
Shrive means to hear or receive a confession (of sins etc.).
What is shrive in Kannada?
Shrive in Kannada is ತಪ್ಪೊಪ್ಪಿಕೆ ಪಡೆ. See Shrive meaning in Kannada.
What part of speech is shrive?
Shrive can be a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce shrive?
Shrive is pronounced /ˈʃɹaɪv/.
What is the past tense of shrive?
The past tense of shrive is shrove.

Words near shrive in the dictionary

  1. shrithes
  2. shrithing
  3. shrivalties
  4. shrivalty
  5. shrivatsa
  6. shrive
  7. shrived
  8. shrivel
  9. shrivel up
  10. shriveled
  11. shriveled up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shrive (page history and authors); Shrive (page history and authors); shrive (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-shrive.wav.

Cite this entry: “shrive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shrive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.