agenbite

English

Alternative forms
  • againbite, gainbite

Etymology

Modern spelling of ayenbite reflecting Old English agēn (“again, eft, back”).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /əˈɡɛnbʌɪt/

Noun

agenbite (uncountable)

  1. remorse, ayenbite, often used as a conscious archaism
    • Speaking to me. They wash and tub and scrub. Agenbite of inwit. Conscience. — James Joyce, Ulysses, 1922
    • A special property of all social extensions of the body is that they return to plague the inventors in a kind of agenbite of outwit. — Marshall McLuhan, The Agenbite of Outwit, 1998
    • But more to the point here, the agenbite is, if not a Jewish condition, then more pervasive among Jews than any other group, by a wide margin. — David Koffler, How Jewy Should We Want Our Presidents To Be?, 2008
    • ... a habitude of writers challenged by the affliction of an over-agenbite and inwit to match. — James Rother, A Review of An Lauterbach, 2005

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