Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To make amends or reparation for; atone: expiate one's sins by acts of penance.
- v. To make amends; atone.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To atone for; make satisfaction or reparation for; remove or endeavor to remove the moral guilt of (a crime or evil act), or counteract its evil effects, by suffering a penalty or doing some counterbalancing good.
- To avert by certain observances.
- Expired.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive or intransitive To atone or make reparation for.
- v. transitive To make amends or pay the penalty for.
- v. transitive, obsolete To relieve or cleanse of guilt.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To extinguish the guilt of by sufferance of penalty or some equivalent; to make complete satisfaction for; to atone for; to make amends for; to make expiation for.
- v. obsolete To purify with sacred rites.
- adj. obsolete Terminated.
WordNet 3.0
- v. make amends for
Etymologies
- From Latin expiatum, past participle of expiō ("atone for"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin expiāre, expiāt- : ex-, intensive pref.; see ex- + piāre, to atone (from pius, devout). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“He realized the gravity of his action, in killing the Tsar's representative, and, while viewing it as necessary, resolved to "expiate" his crime by taking his own life.”
“This guy and his former boss, Mike Huckabee, wear their religion on their sleeve and use it to expiate guilt and diffuse personal accountability for what they do.”
“She could gain her freedom from jail by agreeing to marry her rapist, and thus expiate her "adultery.”
The Huffington Post: David Katz, M.D.: Dignifying Health: Why Not Quite Everything Is Relative
“We feel a tinge of guilt that we expiate in this season of giving.”
The Huffington Post: William Grassie: Christmas From The Outside In: A Meditation
“We can expiate that sin in this vital mid-term election.”
“Blaming whitey does not expiate the crimes of ZANU a single bit.”
“Maybe Clinton recently brought up the Oklahoma bombing not just to attack tea partiers, but to also somehow expiate his own long simmering guilt about the slaughter Waco.”
“We are now resolved to expiate each and every deplorable outrage committed against Thee; we are determined to make amends for the manifold offenses against Christian modesty in unbecoming dress and behavior, for all the foul seductions laid to ensnare the feet of the innocent, for the frequent violations of Sundays and holy days, and the shocking blasphemies uttered against Thee and Thy saints.”
“He's really smart, a very successful defense attorney who, in an effort to expiate his guilt, has started to defend those black and Latino youths who don't get good defense in New York. ...”
Mega Buzz: The Bones Baby, a Housewives Relapse and a Minds Reunion
“The building of war memorials to expiate the crime of war is a mistake.”
Estonian Symbolism, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘expiate’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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phrontistery - e
from phrontistery.info
eagre, earing, earwig, easement, eau-de-nil, ebberman, ebeneous, ?boulement, ebriection, ?brillade, ebrious, ebullioscope and 616 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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2nd part
prelude, ample, escalate, prototype, accession, acquisition, archives, zealot, indict, verdict, intimidating, timid and 454 more...
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Jesse's random
bathos, dragoman, tessellated, escutcheon, eikon, mondaine, basilisk, ciborium, rubric, machicolation, jet, defalcation and 198 more...
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Ballardian
All things descriptive from JG
Ballardoperation mindfuck, pataphysics, wahrheitssensible..., polymorphism, postprandial, covalent, stygian, lucus a non lucendo, kafkaesque, leitmotif, fugacious, ablate and 81 more...
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Burroughs
Detestable words
purulence, bête noire, exigent, exculpate, desideratum, lucriferous, concomitant, pertinacious, pervicacious, gemütlichkeit, sublimate, sanfroid and 39 more...
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New Words
idiopathic, quidditas, cloacal, peregrination, cyclamen, expatiate, pedantic, salonniere, manque, pelagic, exogenous, pellucid and 83 more...
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EN - high brow
abrogate, abstemious, abstract of law, alderman, apocryphal, apostasy, apoplexy, apotheosis, apposite, aver, decorous, apprehensive and 51 more...
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ash vocab
flippant, fillip, expiate, explicate, extirpate, facile, florid, fealty, allegiance, fetid, febrile, pert and 134 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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e
ws 2
enumerate, embroil, embellish, epicure, epoch, estrange, evince, excise, exodus, exorbitant, expiate
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collection
sanguine, vie, antebellum, glacial, treacly, iconoclast, lissom, anathema, serendipity, parsimonious, histrionic, contemptuous and 279 more...
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CCW
Commonly Confused Words
wreath, wreathe, titillate, titivate, proscribe, prescribe, pedal, peddle, mettle, metal, palette, palate and 132 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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play words
words for a play
pert, vicissitude, melancholy, vexation, gaud, attestation, renunciation, wax, wrought, sunder, antipodes, reckoning and 236 more...
Tweets
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