Sin, n.
Etymology: [OE. sinne, AS. synn, syn; akin to D. zonde, OS. sundia, OHG. sunta, G. sünde, Icel., Dan. & Sw. synd, L. sons, sontis, guilty, perhaps originally from the p. pr. of the verb signifying, to be, and meaning, the one who it is. Cf. Authentic, Sooth.]
1. Transgression of the law of God; disobedience of the divine command; any violation of God's will, either in purpose or conduct; moral deficiency in the character; iniquity; as, sins of omission and sins of commission. Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. John viii. 34. Sin is the transgression of the law. 1 John iii. 4. I think 't no sin. To cozen him that would unjustly win. Shak. Enthralled By sin to foul, exorbitant desires. Milton.
2. An offense, in general; a violation of propriety; a misdemeanor; as, a sin against good manners. I grant that poetry's a crying sin. Pope.
3. A sin offering; a sacrifice for sin. He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin. 2 Cor. v. 21.
4. An embodiment of sin; a very wicked person. [R.] Thy ambition, Thou scarlet sin, robbed this bewailing land Of noble Buckingham. Shak.
2 more senses
Note: 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.
2 other Webster entries under this spelling
Sin, adv., prep., & conj.
Old form of Since. [Obs. or Prov.Eng. & Scot.] Sin that his lord was twenty year of age. Chaucer.
Sin, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Sinned; p. pr. & vb. n. Sinning.]
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. I am a man More sinned against than sinning. Shak. Who but wishes to invert the laws Of order, sins against the eternal cause. Pope.
Shades of meaning
Sin is any lack of holiness, any defect of moral purity and truth, whether in heart or life, whether of commission or omission. "All unrighteousness is sin," 1 John v, 17. Transgression, as its etymology indicates, is the stepping over a specific enactment, whether of God or man, ordinarily by overt act, but in the broadest sense, in volition or desire. Sin may be either act or state; transgression is always an act, mental or physical. Crime is often used for a flagrant violation of right, but in the technical sense denotes specific violation of human law. Guilt is desert of and exposure to punishment because of sin. Depravity denotes not any action, but a perverted moral condition from which any act of sin may proceed. Sin in the generic sense, as denoting a state of heart, is synonymous with depravity; in the specific sense, as in the expression a sin, the term may be synonymous with transgression, crime, offense, misdeed, etc., or may denote some moral activity that could not be characterized by terms so positive. Immorality denotes outward violation of the moral law. Sin is thus the broadest word, and immorality next in scope; all crimes, properly so called, and all immoralities, are sins; but there may be sin, as ingratitude, which is neither crime, transgression, nor immorality; and there may be immorality which is not crime, as falsehood. Compare criminal.