Meaning & use
unshriven
Last updated
Not having received absolution for one's sins through confession, especially before death.
See it in a sentence
In the old ballad, the soldier dies unshriven on the battlefield, far from any priest.
The ghost in the play laments being sent to his grave unshriven and unprepared.
A note on using this word
From the archaic verb 'shrive,' meaning to hear confession and grant absolution; famously echoed in Hamlet's line about a king killed 'unhouseled, disappointed, unaneled.'
Words with a similar meaning
unconfessedunabsolved
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Words with an opposite meaning
shriven
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