Word.ws English Dictionary

shrove

/ʃɹəʊv/

shrove is the simple past of shrive.

Verb

shrove (third-person singular simple present shroves, present participle shroving, simple past and past participle shroved)

  1. (obsolete) To join in the festivities of Shrovetide.
  2. (broadly, obsolete) To make merry.
    • Servant, your counsel's excellent good,
      And shall be follow'd, 'twill be rarely strange
      To see him stated thus, as though he went
      A shroving through the City1626 February 13 (licensing date; Gregorian calendar), Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Noble Gentleman”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey...

Meaning of shrive

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]...
  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
  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

See all 5 meanings of shrive

Forms of shrove

third-person singular presentshroves
present participleshroving
past participleshroved
pastshroved

Words formed from shrove

Phrases with shrove

Words that rhyme with shrove

41 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about shrove

What does shrove mean?
Shrove means to join in the festivities of Shrovetide.
What is shrove the simple past of?
Shrove is the simple past of shrive.
What part of speech is shrove?
Shrove is a verb.
How do you pronounce shrove?
Shrove is pronounced /ʃɹəʊv/.
What is the past tense of shrove?
The past tense of shrove is shroved.

Words near shrove in the dictionary

  1. shroudlike
  2. shrouds
  3. shroudy
  4. Shrout
  5. Shrouts
  6. shrove
  7. Shrove Monday
  8. Shrove Mondays
  9. Shrove Sunday
  10. Shrove Sundays
  11. Shrove Tuesday

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shrove (page history and authors); shrive (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.

Last updated:

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

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