Word.ws English Dictionary

sin-eater

sin-eater is the alternative form of sin eater.

Meaning of sin eater

Noun

sin eater (plural sin eaters)

  1. (historical) A person (usually a man) who is supposed to take sins of a deceased person upon himself by eating a piece of bread or other food laid on or passed across the breast of the corpse.
    • A Loafe of bread was brought out, and delivered to the Sinne-eater over the corps.1687, John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, page 35

Forms of sin-eater

pluralsin-eaters

Questions about sin-eater

What is sin-eater the alternative form of?
Sin-eater is the alternative form of sin eater.

Words near sin-eater in the dictionary

  1. sin-bin
  2. sin-binned
  3. sin-binning
  4. sin-binnings
  5. sin-bins
  6. sin-eater
  7. sin-eaters
  8. sin-free
  9. sin-ridden
  10. sin-taxed
  11. Sina

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sin-eater (page history and authors); sin eater (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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Cite this entry: “sin-eater.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sin-eater. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.