agenbite

English

Alternative forms

• againbite, gainbite

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Middle English ayenbite, reflecting Old English agēn (“again, eft, back”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈɡɛnbʌɪt/

Noun

agenbite (uncountable)

1. (often purposely archaic) remorse, ayenbite
   • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     Speaking to me. They wash and tub and scrub. Agenbite of inwit. Conscience.

   • 1998, Marshall McLuhan, The Agenbite of Outwit:

     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.'

   • 2008, David Koffler, How Jewy Should We Want Our Presidents To Be?:

     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.

   • 2005, James Rother, A Review of An Lauterbach:

     […] habitude of writers challenged by the affliction of an over-agenbite and inwit to match.

Anagrams

• binge eat