Sin (?), adv., prep., & conj.

Old form of Since.

[Obs. or Prov.Eng. & Scot.]

Sin that his lord was twenty year of age. Chaucer.

 

© Webster 1913.


Sin, n. [OE. sinne, AS. synn, syn; akin to D. zonde, OS. sundia, OHG. sunta, G. sunde, Icel., Dan. & Sw. synd, L. sons, sontis, guilty, perhaps originally from the p. pr. of the verb signifying, to be, and meaning, the one who it is. Cf. Authentic, Sooth.]

1.

Transgression of the law of God; disobedience of the divine command; any violation of God's will, either in purpose or conduct; moral deficiency in the character; iniquity; as, sins of omission and sins of commission.

Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. John viii. 34.

Sin is the transgression of the law. 1 John iii. 4.

I think 't no sin. To cozen him that would unjustly win. Shak.

Enthralled By sin to foul, exorbitant desires. Milton.

2.

An offense, in general; a violation of propriety; a misdemeanor; as, a sin against good manners.

I grant that poetry's a crying sin. Pope.

3.

A sin offering; a sacrifice for sin.

He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin. 2 Cor. v. 21.

4.

An embodiment of sin; a very wicked person.

[R.]

Thy ambition, Thou scarlet sin, robbed this bewailing land Of noble Buckingham. Shak.

Sin is used in the formation of some compound words of obvious signification; as, sin-born; sin-bred, sin-oppressed, sin-polluted, and the like.

Actual sin, Canonical sins, Original sin, Venial sin. See under Actual, Canonical, etc. -- Deadly, ∨ Mortal, sins R. C. Ch., willful and deliberate transgressions, which take away divine grace; -- in distinction from vental sins. The seven deadly sins are pride, covetousness, lust, wrath, gluttony, envy, and sloth. -- Sin eater, a man who (according to a former practice in England) for a small gratuity ate a piece of bread laid on the chest of a dead person, whereby he was supposed to have taken the sins of the dead person upon himself. -- Sin offering, a sacrifice for sin; something offered as an expiation for sin.

Syn. -- Iniquity; wickedness; wrong. See Crime.

 

© Webster 1913.


Sin, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Sinned (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Sinning.] [OE. sinnen, singen, sinegen, AS. syngian. See Sin, n.]

1.

To depart voluntarily from the path of duty prescribed by God to man; to violate the divine law in any particular, by actual transgression or by the neglect or nonobservance of its injunctions; to violate any known rule of duty; -- often followed by against.

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned. Ps. li. 4.

All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Rom. iii. 23.

2.

To violate human rights, law, or propriety; to commit an offense; to trespass; to transgress.

I am a man More sinned against than sinning. Shak.

Who but wishes to invert the laws Of order, sins against the eternal cause. Pope.

 

© Webster 1913.