Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- transitive v. To make amends or reparation for; atone: expiate one's sins by acts of penance.
- intransitive v. To make amends; atone.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- v. To atone or make reparation for.
- v. To make amends or pay the penalty for.
- v. To relieve or cleanse of guilt.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- transitive 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.
- transitive v. To purify with sacred rites.
- adj. Terminated.
from The 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.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- v. make amends for
Etymologies
Examples
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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.
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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.
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She could gain her freedom from jail by agreeing to marry her rapist, and thus expiate her "adultery."
David Katz, M.D.: Dignifying Health: Why Not Quite Everything Is Relative
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We feel a tinge of guilt that we expiate in this season of giving.
William Grassie: Christmas From The Outside In: A Meditation
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We can expiate that sin in this vital mid-term election.
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Blaming whitey does not expiate the crimes of ZANU a single bit.
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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.
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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.
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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
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The building of war memorials to expiate the crime of war is a mistake.
Estonian Symbolism, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
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