Repentance \Re*pent"ance\ (r[-e]*p[e^]nt"ans), n. [F. repentance.]

The act of repenting, or the state of being penitent; sorrow for what one has done or omitted to do; especially, contrition for sin. --Chaucer.

Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation. --2. Cor. vii. 20.

Repentance is a change of mind, or a conversion from sin to God. --Hammond.

Repentance is the relinquishment of any practice from the conviction that it has offended God. Sorrow, fear, and anxiety are properly not parts, but adjuncts, of repentance; yet they are too closely connected with it to be easily separated. --Rambler.

Syn: Contrition; regret; penitence; contriteness; compunction. See Contrition.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)