SHROVE-TUESDAY, Tuesday.] Confession-time; confession-Teusday; the Tuesday after Quinquagesima Sunday; or the day immediately preceding the first of Lent, or Ash Wednesday; on which day, all the people of England when of the Catholic religion, were obliged to confess their sins one by one to their parish priests; after which they dined on pancakes or fritters. The latter ppractice still continues. The bell rung on this day is called pancake-bell.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI