Meanings
alternative againbite · alternative gainbite
- uncountableoften purposely archaicRemorse, ayenbite.
Speaking to me. They wash and tub and scrub. Agenbite of inwit. Conscience.
1922 February 2, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC3 more examples
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.'
1998, Marshall McLuhan, The Agenbite of OutwitBut 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.
2008, David Koffler, How Jewy Should We Want Our Presidents To Be?[…]habitude of writers challenged by the affliction of an over-agenbite and inwit to match.
2005, James Rother, A Review of An Lauterbach
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Old Englishagēn“again, eft, back”
- Middle Englishayenbite
- Englishagenbite
Learned borrowing from Middle English ayenbite, reflecting Old English agēn (“again, eft, back”).
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
agenbite. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/agenbite
“agenbite.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/agenbite. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “agenbite,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/agenbite.
Source: agenbite on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.