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, or 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.
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.