Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In a penitential or contrite manner.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb In a penitential manner.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb In a penitential manner.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb showing remorse

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

penitential +‎ -ly

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Examples

  • Shuffling penitentially on your knees, bending and scraping with dustpan and brush while vicious pine needles perforate your kneecaps...it's almost enough to make you feel like Christmas might, in a twisted way, be the descendent of some sort of primitive religious festival.

    After the Binge Must Come the Purge Sam Leith 2011

  • I am not quite clear whether these articles were carried penitentially or ostentatiously; but I rather think they were displayed as articles of property, — much as Cleopatra or any other sovereign lady on the Rampage might exhibit her wealth in a pageant or procession.

    Great Expectations 2007

  • Beck has followed up 1999's electro-manic "Midnite Vultures" with a return to gloomy acoustic mode (just as he followed his antic breakthrough "Odelay" with the penitentially somber "Mutations").

    Fall Arts Preview: Music 2007

  • Beck has followed up 1999's electro-manic "Midnite Vultures" with a return to gloomy acoustic mode (just as he followed his antic breakthrough "Odelay" with the penitentially somber "Mutations").

    Fall Arts Preview: Music 2007

  • Many a disguised Tory has lately shown his head, that shall penitentially solemnize with curses the day on which Howe arrived upon the Delaware.

    Happy Birthday America! « PurpleSlog – Awesomeness & Modesty Meets Sexy 2006

  • Left alone at his stall as the other ambled off, Mr Wegg subsided into his screen, produced a small pocket-handkerchief of a penitentially-scrubbing character, and took himself by the nose with a thoughtful aspect.

    Our Mutual Friend 2004

  • Our heads, shoulders, and hands were penitentially kissed, and presently the fellows returned to bind up their hurts in dirty rags.

    Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah 2003

  • At Hyde Park Corner on a tub she stands preaching; shrouds herself in white and walks penitentially disguised as brotherly love through factories and parliaments; offers help, but desires power; smites out of her way roughly the dissentient, or dissatisfied; bestows her blessing on those who, looking upward, catch submissively from her eyes the light of their own.

    Mrs. Dalloway 2003

  • She asked Mary Livingston, whom she greeted almost penitentially, to order her a bath of asses 'milk and to request a bread porridge for her, laced with cinnamon and sugar.

    Mary Queen Of Scotland And The Isles George, Margaret 1987

  • She asked Mary Livingston, whom she greeted almost penitentially, to order her a bath of asses 'milk and to request a bread porridge for her, laced with cinnamon and sugar.

    Mary Queen Of Scotland And The Isles George, Margaret 1987

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