Adjacent Words

Indulgence definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

INDUL'GENCE
INDUL'GENCY, n. Free permission to the appetites,humor, desires, passions or will to act or operate; forbearance of restraint or control. How many children are ruined by indulgence! Indulgence is not kindness or tenderness, but it may be the effect of one or the other, or of negligence.
1. Gratification; as the indulgence of lust or of appetite.
2. Favor granted; liberality; gratification.
If all these gracious indulgencies are without effect on us, we must perish in our folly.
3. In the Romish church, remission of the punishment due to sins, granted by the pope or church, and supposed to save the sinner from purgatory; absolution from the censures of the church and from all transgressions.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: an inability to resist the gratification of whims and desires [syn: indulgence, self-indulgence]
2: a disposition to yield to the wishes of someone; "too much indulgence spoils a child" [syn: indulgence, lenience, leniency]
3: the act of indulging or gratifying a desire [syn: indulgence, indulging, pampering, humoring]
4: foolish or senseless behavior [syn: folly, foolery, tomfoolery, craziness, lunacy, indulgence]
5: the remission by the pope of the temporal punishment in purgatory that is still due for sins even after absolution; "in the Middle Ages the unrestricted sale of indulgences by pardoners became a widespread abuse"

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 14th century 1. remission of part or all of the temporal and especially purgatorial punishment that according to Roman Catholicism is due for sins whose eternal punishment has been remitted and whose guilt has been pardoned (as through the sacrament of reconciliation) 2. the act of indulging ; the state of being indulgent 3. a. an indulgent act b. an extension of time for payment or performance granted as a favor 4. a. the act of indulging in something; especially self-indulgence b. something indulged in <walk off gastronomic indulgences — Barbara L. Michaels>

Britannica Concise

In Roman Catholicism, the remission of temporal punishment for sins that have been forgiven through the sacrament of penance. The theology of indulgences is based on the concept that, even though the crime of sin and its eternal punishment are forgiven through penance, divine justice demands that the sinner pay for his crime either in this life or in purgatory. The first indulgences were intended to shorten times of penance by substituting periods of fasting, private prayers, almsgiving, and payments of money for religious purposes. After the 12th cent. they were more widely used, and abuses became common as indulgences were put up for sale to earn money for the church or to enrich unscrupulous clerics. J. Hus opposed them, and M. Luther's Ninety-five Theses (1517) were in part a protest against indulgences. The Council of Trent put an end to the abuses in 1562 but not to the doctrine itself.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a the act of indulging. b the state of being indulgent. 2 something indulged in. 3 RC Ch. the remission of temporal punishment in purgatory, still due for sins after absolution. 4 a privilege granted. Phrases and idioms: Declaration of Indulgence the proclamation of religious liberties, esp. under Charles II in 1672 and James II in 1687. Etymology: ME f. OF f. L indulgentia (as INDULGENT)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Indulgence In*dul"gence, v. t. To grant an indulgence to.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Indulgence In*dul"gence, n. [L. indulgentia: cf. F. indulgence.] 1. The act of indulging or humoring; the quality of being indulgent; forbearance of restrain or control. If I were a judge, that word indulgence should never issue from my lips. --Tooke. They err, that through indulgence to others, or fondness to any sin in themselves, substitute for repentance anything less. --Hammond. 2. An indulgent act; favor granted; gratification. If all these gracious indulgences are without any effect on us, we must perish in our own folly. --Rogers. 3. (R. C. Ch.) Remission of the temporal punishment due to sins, after the guilt of sin has been remitted by sincere repentance; absolution from the censures and public penances of the church. It is a payment of the debt of justice to God by the application of the merits of Christ and his saints to the contrite soul through the church. It is therefore believed to diminish or destroy for sins the punishment of purgatory.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(indulgences) Indulgence means treating someone with special kindness, often when it is not a good thing. The king's indulgence towards his sons angered the business community... N-VAR

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Gratification, humoring, pampering, cockering. 2. Favor, liberality, lenity, lenience, kindness, tenderness. 3. (Theol.) Remission, absolution (from canonical penance).

Moby Thesaurus

acceptance, accommodatingness, agreeableness, allowance, attentiveness, benevolence, blank check, carte blanche, charitableness, charity, coddling, complaisance, concern, condonation, connivance, considerateness, consideration, copyright, cosseting, crapulence, crapulency, crapulousness, delicacy, dispensation, disregard, drunkenness, easiness, endurance, excess, excessiveness, extravagance, favor, favoring, forbearance, forbearing, forbearingness, forgiveness, forgivingness, fortitude, franchise, freedom, generousness, gluttony, grant, gratification, heedfulness, helpfulness, humoring, immoderacy, immoderateness, immoderation, immunity, incontinence, indiscipline, inordinacy, inordinateness, intemperance, intemperateness, kindness, lenience, leniency, lenity, liberty, license, long-sufferance, long-suffering, longanimity, luxury, magnanimity, mindfulness, mollycoddling, obliging, obligingness, overdoing, overindulgence, overlooking, overpermissiveness, pampering, patent, patience, patience of Job, patientness, permissiveness, perseverance, pleasing, privilege, prodigality, profligacy, regard, regardfulness, self-control, self-gratification, self-indulgence, self-satisfaction, solicitousness, solicitude, special favor, spoiling, stoicism, sufferance, sweet reasonableness, swinishness, tact, tactfulness, thought, thoughtfulness, tolerance, toleration, too much, too-muchness, treat, unconstraint, uncontrol, understanding, unrestraint, unrevengefulness, waiting game, waiting it out, warrant, winking