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contrite
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  • Perhaps she too would have reacted like her mother, unable to restrain the impulse to scold until the child acted beaten and contrite.   (source)
    contrite = sorry (feeling sorrow or regret for a fault or offense)
  • He was instantly contrite.   (source)
    contrite = feeling sorrow or regret for an offense
  • "I'm sorry you lost your rocket stuff," he told me, truly contrite.   (source)
    contrite = feeling sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • "I have short legs," she reminded him.
    "Sorry." He slowed down, contrite.   (source)
  • Nathaniel finally brings his head up and there's a hint of contrition in his eye.   (source)
    contrition = sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • At five o'clock, instead of going to see her, he made a profound act of contrition before his confessor, and on the following Sunday he took Communion, his heart broken but his soul at peace.   (source)
    contrition = a prayer or other action done to amend for a sin
  • Venial sins are lighter, like a rash instead of measles. A rash that goes away even without Confession if you say an Act of Contrition.   (source)
    contrition = sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • Cullivan probed, trying to gauge the depth of what he assumed would be Perry's contrition.   (source)
  • By now, her raging child had turned into a contrite little girl again.   (source)
    contrite = sorry (feeling sorrow or regret for a fault or offense)
  • August is agitated and desperate, moving from window to window, hauling himself up by his fingertips, weeping, oozing contrition.   (source)
    contrition = sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • The other half told me to shut up, told me to smile, told me to find a hint of contrition and agree, "You're right, Mom, some of my choices haven't been the best lately."   (source)
    contrition = regret for a fault
  • She didn't feel he was sufficiently contrite.   (source)
    contrite = full of sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • Pruitt said he was contrite and determined and asked us to come again.   (source)
    contrite = feeling sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • For what it was worth, he seemed genuinely contrite.   (source)
    contrite = sorry for a fault or offense
  • He had told his tale without much emotion, although his voice had trembled near the end, when he had come to the part about the "priest" and the "Act of Contrition."   (source)
    contrition = a prayer or other action done to amend for a sin
  • Over and over through my mind ran the words of the Act of Contrition.   (source)
    contrition = regret or sorrow
  • One moccasin had fallen off. I could see the brown, grubby sole of her foot, and the line of six toes. I turned to Rosalind. Her eyes met mine, contrite and appalled.   (source)
    contrite = feeling sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • he didn't look contrite or guilty,   (source)
  • That's when I'm feeling contrite.   (source)
  • The contrite people of Tuen Mun had been not only generous and protective but inventive as well.   (source)
  • The color of his pallor, however, was a curiously basic white--unmixed, that is, with the greens and yellows of guilt or abject contrition.   (source)
    contrition = sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • Not once in the course of these proceedings did this man show the least contrition.   (source)
  • And Ruthie was instantly contrite.   (source)
    contrite = feeling sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • ...and started an act of contrition racing in it, "Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee who art worthy of all my love--"   (source)
    contrition = a prayer or other action done to amend for a sin
  • It's natural for you to be a little contrite—a normal reflex—but we must look at it objectively, we're grownup, rational people, nothing is too serious, we can't really help what we do, we're conditioned that way, we just charge it off to experience and go on from there.   (source)
    contrite = feel sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • But she forgave him when he had made a proper act of contrition.   (source)
    contrition = sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • Francie was instantly contrite.   (source)
    contrite = sorry (for a fault or offense)
  • She had experienced it twice herself, during her own engagements—this vague contrition and doubt.   (source)
    contrition = sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • "I'm awfully sorry I made fun of your hair, Anne," he whispered contritely.   (source)
    contritely = with a feeling sorrow or regret for having done something wrong
  • The self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a guilty one.   (source)
    contrition = sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • come with a broken spirit! come with a contrite heart! come in your rags and sin and dirt! the waters that cleanse is free, the door of heaven stands open—   (source)
    contrite = regretful over a mistake
  • Seeing that he really was out of temper, Jo, who knew how to manage him, assumed a contrite expression, and going artistically down upon her knees, said meekly, "Please forgive me for being so cross."   (source)
    contrite = feeling sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • Therefore, sire, your Majesty sees that they are come, quite contrite and repentant, to offer you their excuses.   (source)
    contrite = sorry for a fault
  • ...the tender sadness of a contrite heart, broken, at last, beneath its own weight of sin?   (source)
    contrite = feeling sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • Alas! my very dear brother, I should like to settle down to a better life. I come to you full of contrition, I am penitent. I make my confession.   (source)
    contrition = sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • In the warmth of true contrition, she would call upon her the very next morning, and it should be the beginning, on her side, of a regular, equal, kindly intercourse.   (source)
  • These fits of contrition usually lasted only moments before the shrieking and punching began again.†   (source)
  • She was not given to compunction as a rule, but this time she did seem to feel a little contrite for having invited Alex Thomas on the spur of the moment.†   (source)
  • "Sorry," he says contritely.†   (source)
  • You're absolutely right," the Count admitted contritely.†   (source)
  • "I don't think you can call it a fad if it's changed the way we live," Molly says, then smiles contritely, aware that she's already gotten herself into a disagreement with her potential boss.†   (source)
  • At the hurt in his blue eyes she was instantly contrite.†   (source)
  • He had been a sly child, but after his mischiefs he always looked contrite; it was a gift he had.†   (source)
  • She looked contrite.†   (source)
  • DRACO, GINNY, and HARRY stand behind a contrite-looking SCORPIUS and ALBUS.†   (source)
  • I closed my eyes and said a silent Act of Contrition.†   (source)
  • Contrition sent him running after her.†   (source)
  • At the end of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, the king blinds himself, which is very definitely a kind of marking—of atonement, guilt, and contrition—and one that he will wear throughout the subsequent play, Oedipus at Colonus.†   (source)
  • Oh Corrie," she said, her voice suddenly small and contrite, "I know it's horrid and selfish of me when you've had to be in the shop day after day.†   (source)
  • He removes his hand, his face a picture of contrition, of deep shame.†   (source)
  • He glared at the boy, who dropped his eyes contritely and spooned up a mouthful of stew.†   (source)
  • And now she was contrite.†   (source)
  • But his contrition did not last long, for the next day he informed us he was reinstating all the charges against us.†   (source)
  • They pulled away from each other, startled but not contrite.†   (source)
  • "There!" she cried in a contrite voice.†   (source)
  • I had prepared to be contrite and sincere, not combative.†   (source)
  • I look down at my feet, hoping this passes for contrition.†   (source)
  • And in their response to his decision there is a tenderness, some contrition, and mounting respect ("They didn't know he had it in him"), an awareness that his suicide enclosed, rather than repudiated them.†   (source)
  • He turns, looking halfway contrite about his language.†   (source)
  • 'Well,' said Lestat, 'I suppose you're not contrite, dear.†   (source)
  • He greeted Milo jovially each time they met and, in an excess of contrite generosity, impulsively recommended Major Major for promotion.†   (source)
  • He was contrite all of a sudden, doing the Corporate America step'n'fetchit, the old two-step backstep.†   (source)
  • "Impossible," he said when a contrite voice explained that Sister Mary Joseph Praise was indisposed.†   (source)
  • I raised an eyebrow, and she continued, in a more contrite tone, "I thought I'd be able to handle things by myself, but all last night, and all today, I've just been wishing I'd stayed with you.†   (source)
  • John Gordon was one of those who slipped into the corner of contrition, meeting no one's eyes but bending solicitously over Urith, who clung to his arm, the whiteness of her penitent's robe showing up the purple bruising all around her swollen, broken nose.†   (source)
  • But Pig was beyond humiliation, and he had a touching need to perform a public act of contrition and expiation.†   (source)
  • "Sorry," he mumbled contritely.†   (source)
  • His manner suddenly became apologetic, civilized, almost contrite.†   (source)
  • He never shouted back, nor argued, nor attempted to defend himself, but always sat motionless as her anger poured down on his bowed head —sick, contrite, and beaten.†   (source)
  • All these acts of contrition give too much importance to various infirmities of the flesh and to whether it is fat or famished-it's repulsive.†   (source)
  • She adds quickly with a detached contrition.†   (source)
  • "Ruth?" he said, lifting the receiver, his voice almost contrite.†   (source)
  • Contritely) No, truly now, your principles are fine.†   (source)
  • He cast a despondent, contrite glance toward Mariam, then his mother.   (source)
    contrite = feeling sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • Aureliano scolded him like a child and he adopted a contrite air.   (source)
  • Clayton shuffled his feet, trying to look contrite.   (source)
    contrite = sorry and full of regret for a fault or offense
  • ...though nothing in her demeanor expressed contrition.   (source)
    contrition = sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • He smiled, looking contrite, a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar.   (source)
    contrite = feeling sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • Trey is contrite.   (source)
  • he was standing up strongly with contrite heart,   (source)
  • All at once he becomes miserably contrite.   (source)
  • he heard his own voice full of the quietude of humility and contrition.   (source)
    contrition = sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • But Mr. Emerson, contrite and unhappy, hurried away to apologize to...   (source)
    contrite = feeling sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • Henchard, in a state of bitter anxiety and contrition, determined to seek Farfrae himself.   (source)
    contrition = sorrow or regret for a fault or offense
  • ...your evident contrition, and sense of shame; all lead me to believe that you might yet be reclaimed.   (source)
  • "And I said, Miss;" here Sissy fairly sobbed as confessing with extreme contrition to her greatest error; "I said it was nothing."   (source)
  • Instead of hating you I could, I think, mourn for and pity you, if you were contrite, and would confess all.   (source)
    contrite = feeling sorrow or regret (for a fault or offense)
  • There was no contrition in his voice, only curiosity.†   (source)
  • "Yes, Miss Pippa," Bessie says contritely.†   (source)
  • "The bad kind," said Arya, suddenly contrite.†   (source)
  • A humble and a contrite heart proved to have benefits over and beyond cleansing the soul of sin.†   (source)
  • It was as much contrition as she could expect in return.†   (source)
  • I had to pray an Act of Contrition for his departing soul, like I prayed for Lupito.†   (source)
  • He sounded both sincere and contrite, but she held up her hands to stop him.†   (source)
  • He clasped his hands in front of him, the picture of contrition.†   (source)
  • "He's yours, my lady," she said, trying to sound meek and contrite.†   (source)
  • I must be chaste and humble and contrite.†   (source)
  • She said, with a contrition absolutely false and murderous, "That's true.†   (source)
  • Yossarian took her in his arms and hugged her with gentle, contrite affection.†   (source)
  • 'I'm sorry,' the chaplain apologized contritely.†   (source)
  • I crossed my forehead and prayed an Act of Contrition like I had for Narciso, but it was no good.†   (source)
  • In his innocence he prayed the Act of Final Contrition for us who were the outcasts of the town.†   (source)
  • TYRONE Has shrunk back in his chair under this attack, his guilty contrition greater than his anger.†   (source)
  • Simon sounded contrite.†   (source)
  • We have to know by heart all the prayers, the Hail Mary, the Our Father, the Confiteor, the Apostles' Creed, the Act of Contrition, the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary.†   (source)
  • Or perhaps he was motivated by the same vanity that had consumed him in wartime, and hoped to use his vile history, and his victims, to draw attention to himself, maybe even win admiration for his contrition.†   (source)
  • Rocher stepped in, looking contrite.†   (source)
  • "They heard us playing, and it changed their path," she said, contrite, as if she felt responsible for whatever had frightened her.†   (source)
  • He looked contrite.†   (source)
  • "Oh, no!" he said quickly, smiling at her out of that unfailing impulse of contrition—a sort of chivalry Yet, walking down the path with her, he blurted out, "I'd like to go and have a look at those rocks down there."†   (source)
  • I had expected contriteness.†   (source)
  • A vow of silence is an act of contrition, a sacrifice by which we prove our devotion to the Seven Above.†   (source)
  • Speak your act of contrition in the speech of civilization for which better men than you will ever be have died, maggot.†   (source)
  • She would be thinking that when you've married somebody else's husband, if you play on her pi-ana it ought to be a contrite hymn that starts, "Lord, my sins be as scarlet" or "Too shamed to lift my head, Lord, too stained to hope for Heaven."†   (source)
  • "Would you mind if I—" he began, and broke off to say contritely, "I'll go back with you if you'd rather."†   (source)
  • Had to play contrite.†   (source)
  • As for me, I was less than contrite.†   (source)
  • There was a world of reproach in his face, and Johnnie answered it with eyes of such shame and contrition as convinced him that she knew well the degradation of what she was doing.†   (source)
  • Contrite was not his style.†   (source)
  • He felt immediate contrition, seeing, in his mind's eye, her bewildered face, knowing how she wondered why her eldest son should cause, and appear to wish to cause her, so much pain.†   (source)
  • Or contrite.†   (source)
  • Milo responded contritely.†   (source)
  • I had not yet been to catechism, nor had I made my first holy communion, but my mother had taught me the Act of Contrition.†   (source)
  • I chose contrition.†   (source)
  • She opened her mouth to shout at him, but before she could, he had become suddenly contrite because of the way he had spoken to her; and there was another of those little scenes which comforted and soothed her: he apologizing, abasing himself, and she forgiving him.†   (source)
  • You let hick town boobs flatter you with bunk about your future— Abruptly his tone changes to disgusted contrition.†   (source)
  • "Nothing," I mumbled, looking contritely at the ground.†   (source)
  • I have smelt them, the death-bringers; now is too late For action, too soon for contrition.†   (source)
  • He does not know (no one can know) my innumerable contrition and weariness.†   (source)
  • She looked at the dazed hurt faces of India and Pitty and contrition swept her.†   (source)
  • Contrite, he brought her a plate heaped with spaghetti.†   (source)
  • There was a sense of guilt in her manner, a note of regret and contrition.†   (source)
  • Contrite, I went to bed, hoping that I would never see another kitten.†   (source)
  • It was hammering now in the roar and he could not remember the act of contrition.†   (source)
  • Parritt changes to a contrite, appealing air.†   (source)
  • Ah, yes—Mr. Gant," he smiled his contrition.†   (source)
  • LEWIS—(light dawning—contritely) My profound apologies, Joseph, old chum.†   (source)
  • Where the broad waxen plane of her cheeks curved into the chin, small dents of contrition appeared-the very furthest away a smile could get from the distracted brown eyes, the creased brow.†   (source)
  • Father Lucero made his confession, renouncing his heresy and expressing contrition, after which he received the Sacrament.†   (source)
  • Then, fluescent, her ripe limbs moulded in a dress of silk henna, she writhed carefully among the crowded tables, with a low rich murmur of contrition.†   (source)
  • The note was written in conte crayon on a whole sheet of my choice Whatman H.P. drawing paper: I am very contrite.†   (source)
  • It would have been easy to have lived in it, for it was his mother's world, humble, contrite, believing.†   (source)
  • Confess your sins and do penance for them in sorrow and contrition," Ellen had told her a hundred times and, in this crisis, Ellen's religious training came back and gripped her.†   (source)
  • "Let's get this clear," I said; "he has to make an act of will; he has to be contrite and wish to be reconciled; is that right?†   (source)
  • But they had their Christmas, beginning thus with parental advice and continuing through all the acts of contrition, love, and decorum.†   (source)
  • "Well!" ejaculated Helen, contritely, half sorry, half amused.†   (source)
  • "I am vile, vile; I know it!" cried Lebedeff, beating his breast with a contrite air.†   (source)
  • By the time they reached home she was contrite and spiritless.†   (source)
  • Octavius knows that I would not turn any truly contrite and repentant woman from your doors.†   (source)
  • You might have thought that Leonora would be just calmly loathing and he lachrymosely contrite.†   (source)
  • But, as a contrite woman always keeps back a little, that portion of the scene remained untold.†   (source)
  • Pray always—for in prayer alone, prayer and contrition, is salvation.†   (source)
  • Then, raising his head, he repeated the act of contrition, phrase by phrase, with fervour.†   (source)
  • Wal, I reckon it'd been better not to tell you so offhand like," replied Roy, contritely.†   (source)
  • "It wasn't Diana's fault," said Anne contritely.†   (source)
  • And by conversion and contrition should he not be purged of this?†   (source)
  • And she explained, in bitter contrition.†   (source)
  • "Oh, indeed, Marilla, I do want to hear it," cried Anne contritely.†   (source)
  • He had but to seek; confess the miseries and errors of his heart, and express contrition.†   (source)
  • Ah, well! let me take the name of drunkard humbly—let me be a man of contrite knees—let it be!†   (source)
  • She is contrite, she has confessed all to me.†   (source)
  • As to all the rest, he was humble and contrite, and I never knew him complain.†   (source)
  • They were but few, but were eloquent with the feelings of blighted affection, and contrition.†   (source)
  • He felt contrition.†   (source)
  • It comes from an era of superstitious contrition, when the idea of humanity was demeaned and distorted into a caricature, a fearful era, when harmony and health were considered suspicious and devilish, whereas infirmity in those days was as good as a passport to heaven.†   (source)
  • This latter adornment the faculty somehow felt was not properly significant of the contrite spirit befitting a boy under the ban of suspension.†   (source)
  • It stood on a green hill, but of a green not of this world, and it was surrounded by massive walls and bastions to be stormed by no machines or engines of man's invention, but by prayer and fasting, by contrite sighs and by mortifications of the flesh.†   (source)
  • Challow expressed his contrition.†   (source)
  • By slower degrees his friendship for Jane Withersteen and his contrition drifted from the active preoccupation of his present thought to a place in memory, with more and more infrequent recalls.†   (source)
  • The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.†   (source)
  • There was a moment, during this long, wretched walk back from the Petersburg Side, when the prince felt an irresistible desire to go straight to Rogojin's, wait for him, embrace him with tears of shame and contrition, and tell him of his distrust, and finish with it—once for all.†   (source)
  • Leonora, with panic growing and with contrition very large in her heart, visited every one of the public rooms of the hotel—the dining-room, the lounge, the schreibzimmer, the winter garden.†   (source)
  • His soul sank back deeper into depths of contrite peace, no longer able to suffer the pain of dread, and sending forth, as he sank, a faint prayer.†   (source)
  • What had happened on the day of our jaunt to the ancient city of M—— had been this: Leonora, who had been even then filled with pity and contrition for the poor child, on returning to our hotel had gone straight to Mrs Maidan's room.†   (source)
  • — Their piety would be like their names, like their faces, like their clothes, and it was idle for him to tell himself that their humble and contrite hearts, it might be, paid a far richer tribute of devotion than his had ever been, a gift tenfold more acceptable than his elaborate adoration.†   (source)
  • There was no limit to the strange and unnecessary penances which Sue would meekly undertake when in a contrite mood; and this going to see all sorts of extraordinary persons whose relation to her was precisely of a kind that would have made other people shun them was her instinct ever, so that the request did not surprise him.†   (source)
  • It was a contrite little note from Sue, in which she said, with sweet humility, that she felt she had been horrid in telling him he was not to come to see her, that she despised herself for having been so conventional; and that he was to be sure to come by the eleven-forty-five train that very Sunday, and have dinner with them at half-past one.†   (source)
  • I will ask you now, all of you, to repeat after me the act of contrition, kneeling here in this humble chapel in the presence of God.†   (source)
  • And yet on account of what McMillan had already said,—that he considered Clyde, whatever his past sins, contrite and clean before the Lord—a youth truly ready to meet his Maker—she was prone to rest.†   (source)
  • Jude, now getting towards his sober senses, could only say, "Dear, dear Sue!" in a voice broken by grief and contrition.†   (source)
  • But the days going by until finally one day six weeks after—and when because of his silence in regard to himself, the Rev. Duncan was beginning to despair of ever affecting him in any way toward his proper contrition and salvation—a letter or note from Sondra.†   (source)
  • In their separate cells, many of those who through fear or contrition, or because of innate religious convictions, had been recalled to some form of shielding or comforting faith, were upon their knees praying.†   (source)
  • On the other hand, no doubt if he were sent to the chair now in the face of his first—and yet so clear manifestation of contrition—when now, for the first time he was beginning to grasp the enormity of his offense—it would be but to compound crime with crime—the state in this instance being the aggressor.†   (source)
  • And in that mood—and because of the urge of the Reverend Duncan, who was convinced by Clyde's confession that he must have been completely infused with the spirit of God, once more thumbing through the various passages and chapters pointed out to him—reading and re-reading the Psalms most familiar to him, seeking from their inspiration to catch the necessary contrition—which once caught would give him that peace and strength which in those long and dreary hours he so much desired.†   (source)
  • And another week in which, moved by Clyde's seeming contrition, and all the confusing and extenuating circumstances of his story, and having wrestled most earnestly with every moral aspect of it, the Reverend McMillan once more before his cell door—but only to say that however liberal or charitable his interpretation of the facts, as at last Clyde had truthfully pictured them, still he could not feel that either primarily or secondarily could he be absolved from guilt for her death.†   (source)
  • On the other hand, Mrs. Griffiths, owing to her own long meditations in regard to Clyde, Roberta, his sufferings during and since the trial, the fact that according to the Reverend McMillan he had at last been won to a deep contrition and a spiritual union with his Creator whatever his original sin, was now more than ever convinced that humanity and even justice demanded that at least he be allowed to live.†   (source)
  • I devoted myself to reclaim the otherwise predestined and lost boy; to give him the reputation of an honest origin; to bring him up in fear and trembling, and in a life of practical contrition for the sins that were heavy on his head before his entrance into this condemned world.†   (source)
  • In this pleasing, contrite wood-life which God allows me, let me record day by day my honest thought without prospect or retrospect, and, I cannot doubt, it will be found symmetrical, though I mean it not, and see it not.†   (source)
  • As you have taken up the cross, and become a follower of good and an eschewer of evil, I trust I shall see you before the altar, with a contrite heart and a meek spirit.†   (source)
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