PENANCE in a Sentence

Learn PENANCE from example sentences, some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

For PENANCE, below is one of 16 sentences:
Be that as it may, if our good senator was a political sinner, he was in a fair way to expiate it by his night's penance.

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 Meanings and Examples of PENANCE
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
penance
 n.  repentance; sorrow; suffering; a means of repairing a sin committed, and obtaining pardon for it
Classic Sentence:
1  "Confess your sins and do penance for them in sorrow and contrition," Ellen had told her a hundred times and, in this crisis, Ellen's religious training came back and gripped her.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER LV
2  And, for her penance, there would be the dreadful sight of Melanie's face changing from fond love and trust to incredulous horror and repulsion.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER LV
3  She remembered with dread Rhett's remark that he would even join their damned Klan to be respectable, though he hoped God would not lay so heavy a penance on his shoulders.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER LVIII
4  He was still, indeed, doing penance for it.
My Antonia By Willa Cather
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 3. Lena Lingard: I
5  Be that as it may, if our good senator was a political sinner, he was in a fair way to expiate it by his night's penance.
Uncle Tom's Cabin By Harriet Beecher Stowe
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER IX
6  It is probable that there was an idea of penance in this mode of occupation, and that she offered up a real sacrifice of enjoyment in devoting so many hours to such rude handiwork.
The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Context  Highlight   In V. HESTER AT HER NEEDLE
7  A frowzy mourning of soot and smoke attired this forlorn creation of Barnard, and it had strewn ashes on its head, and was undergoing penance and humiliation as a mere dust-hole.
Great Expectations By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In Chapter XXI
8  It would be no great penance,' said Rosa Dartle, 'for your crimes.
David Copperfield By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 50. Mr. PEGGOTTY'S DREAM COMES TRUE
9  In some sisterhood of the strictest order, shalt thou have time for prayer and fitting penance, and that repentance not to be repented of.
Ivanhoe By Walter Scott
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXVIII
10  From that period his penance had become severe.
Persuasion By Jane Austen
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 23
11  Poor Jo looked abashed, and silently chafed the end of her nose with the stiff handkerchief, as if performing a penance for her misdemeanors.
Little Women By Louisa May Alcott
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
12  He knelt to say his penance, praying in a corner of the dark nave; and his prayers ascended to heaven from his purified heart like perfume streaming upwards from a heart of white rose.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man By James Joyce
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 3
13  The vocal mothers consult after each confession and inflict the penance aloud.
Les Misérables 2 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 6: CHAPTER II—THE OBEDIENCE OF MARTIN VERGA
Example Sentence:
1  We prayed and did penance together.
2  As a penance, she said she would buy them all a box of chocolates.
3  He had done penance for his sins; we should forgive him.