Library / English Dictionary

REPENT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Feel remorse for; feel sorry for; be contrite about

Synonyms:

regret; repent; rue

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "repent" is one way to...):

experience; feel (undergo an emotional sensation or be in a particular state of mind)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

repentance (remorse for your past conduct)

repentant (feeling or expressing remorse for misdeeds)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Turn away from sin or do penitence

Synonyms:

atone; repent

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

repentant (feeling or expressing remorse for misdeeds)

Credits

 Context examples: 

But, Sir, I thought every story should have some sort of a moral, so I took care to have a few of my sinners repent.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I had not gone a hundred yards before I deeply repented my rashness.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was the Ghost herself that lured Johnson into signing for the voyage, but he is already beginning to repent.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

But I had soon reason to repent those foolish words: for that malicious reprobate, having often endeavoured in vain to persuade both the captains that I might be thrown into the sea (which they would not yield to, after the promise made me that I should not die), however, prevailed so far, as to have a punishment inflicted on me, worse, in all human appearance, than death itself.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of returning home.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Jane, you would not repent marrying me—be certain of that; we must be married.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

When he grew into the better understanding of what he had done, he saw it, and repented of it!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Mr. Rushworth had, perhaps, been accepted on too short an acquaintance, and, on knowing him better, she was repenting.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

He thought of it all day long, and for many days successively, and he did not repent.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

They seem very comfortable as they are, and if she were to take any pains to marry him, she would probably repent it.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)