Definition of Amende Honorable

In old English law. A penalty imposed upon a person by way of disgrace or infamy, as a punishment for any offense or for the purpose of making reparation for any injury done to another, as the walking into church in a white sheet, with a rope about the neck and a torch in the hand, and begging the pardon of God or the king or any private individual, for seme delinquency. Bouvier. In French law. A species of punishment to which offenders against public decency or morality were anciently condemned.