sin eater

See also: sin-eater

English

Noun

sin eater (plural sin eaters)

  1. (historical) A person (usually a man) who is supposed to take sins of a deceased person upon himself by eating a piece of bread or other food laid on or passed across the breast of the corpse.
    • 1687, John Aubrey, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, page 35:
      A Loafe of bread was brought out, and delivered to the Sinne-eater over the corps.

Alternative forms

Anagrams

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.