Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Sin \Sin\, n. [OE. sinne, AS. synn, syn; akin to D. zonde, OS.
   sundia, OHG. sunta, G. s["u]nde, 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.

   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}.

Canonic \Ca*non"ic\, Cannonical \Can*non"ic*al\, a. [L.
   cannonicus, LL. canonicalis, fr. L. canon: cf. F. canonique.
   See {canon}.]
   Of or pertaining to a canon; established by, or according to
   a, canon or canons. ``The oath of canonical obedience.''
   --Hallam.

   {Canonical books}, or {Canonical Scriptures}, those books
      which are declared by the canons of the church to be of
      divine inspiration; -- called collectively the canon. The
      Roman Catholic Church holds as canonical several books
      which Protestants reject as apocryphal.

   {Canonical epistles}, an appellation given to the epistles
      called also general or catholic. See {Catholic epistles},
      under {Canholic}.

   {Canonical form} (Math.), the simples or most symmetrical
      form to which all functions of the same class can be
      reduced without lose of generality.

   {Canonical hours}, certain stated times of the day, fixed by
      ecclesiastical laws, and appropriated to the offices of
      prayer and devotion; also, certain portions of the
      Breviary, to be used at stated hours of the day. In
      England, this name is also given to the hours from 8 a. m.
      to 3 p. m. (formerly 8 a. m. to 12 m.) before and after
      which marriage can not be legally performed in any parish
      church.

   {Canonical letters}, letters of several kinds, formerly given
      by a bishop to traveling clergymen or laymen, to show that
      they were entitled to receive the communion, and to
      distinguish them from heretics.

   {Canonical life}, the method or rule of living prescribed by
      the ancient clergy who lived in community; a course of
      living prescribed for the clergy, less rigid than the
      monastic, and more restrained that the secular.

   {Canonical obedience}, submission to the canons of a church,
      especially the submission of the inferior clergy to their
      bishops, and of other religious orders to their superiors.
      

   {Canonical punishments}, such as the church may inflict, as
      excommunication, degradation, penance, etc.

   {Canonical sins} (Anc. Church.), those for which capital
      punishment or public penance decreed by the canon was
      inflicted, as idolatry, murder, adultery, heresy.