peccancy

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pec·cant

(pĕk′ənt)

adj.

1. Sinful; guilty.

2. Violating a rule or an accepted practice; erring.

[Latin peccāns, peccant-, present participle of peccāre, to sin; see ped- in Indo-European roots.]

pec′can·cy n.

pec′cant·ly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

peccancy

1. the state or condition of being sinful or in sin.
2. a sinful act. — peccant, adj.

peccancy

noun

1. A wicked act or wicked behavior:

crime, deviltry, diablerie, evil, evildoing, immorality, iniquity, misdeed, offense, sin, wickedness, wrong, wrongdoing.

2. That which is morally bad or objectionable:

evil, iniquity, sin, wickedness, wrong.

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References in periodicals archive ?

(93.) As Garry Wills observes, however, history has shown that abuse of individual rights and peccancy tend to thrive more at the local level, and the federal government has often been the rescuer of the weak abused by the powerful.