sin Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun estrangement from god
    sinfulness; wickedness.
  2. noun an act that is regarded by theologians as a transgression of God's will
    sinning.
  3. noun ratio of the length of the side opposite the given angle to the length of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle
    sine.
  4. noun (Akkadian) god of the Moon; counterpart of Sumerian Nanna
  5. noun the 21st letter of the Hebrew alphabet
  6. noun violent and excited activity
    hell.
    • they began to fight like sin
  7. verb commit a sin; violate a law of God or a moral law
    trespass; transgress.
  8. verb commit a faux pas or a fault or make a serious mistake
    drop the ball; goof; boob; blunder.
    • I blundered during the job interview

WordNet

Sin adverb , preposition , & conjunction
Definitions
  1. Old form of Since. Obs. or Prov.Eng. & Scot.
    Sin that his lord was twenty year of age. Chaucer.
Sin noun
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.
Definitions
  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.
    ✍ 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. Syn. -- Iniquity; wickedness; wrong. See Crime.
Sin intransitive verb
Etymology
OE. sinnen, singen, sinegen, AS. syngian. See Sin, n.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Sinned ; present participle & verbal noun Sinning
Definitions
  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.

Webster 1913