SHROPSHIRE, or Salop, a county of England. (See Salop.)

SHROVE-TUESDAY, is the Tuesday after Quinquagesima Sunday, or the day immediately preceding the first of Lent, being so called from the Saxon word to shrive, which signifies to confess. Hence Shrove-Tuesday signifies Confession-Tuesday, on which day all the people in every parish throughout England, during the Catholic times, were obliged to confess their sins, one by one, to their own parish priest, in their own parish-churches; and, that this might be done the more regularly, the great bell in every parish was rung at ten o'clock, or perhaps sooner, that it might be heard by all, and that they might attend, according to the custom then in use.