Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act of expiating; atonement.
  • noun A means of expiating.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of expiating, or of making satisfaction or reparation for an offense; atonement; reparation. See atonement.
  • noun The means by which atonement, satisfaction, or reparation of crimes is made; an atonement.
  • noun An observance or ceremony intended to avert omens or prodigies.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of making satisfaction or atonement for any crime or fault; the extinguishing of guilt by suffering or penalty.
  • noun The means by which reparation or atonement for crimes or sins is made; an expiatory sacrifice or offering; an atonement.
  • noun obsolete An act by which the threats of prodigies were averted among the ancient heathen.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An act of atonement for a sin or wrongdoing.
  • noun obsolete The act of expiating or stripping off; plunder; pillage.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun compensation for a wrong
  • noun the act of atoning for sin or wrongdoing (especially appeasing a deity)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin expiatio.

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Examples

  • Some modern students of the Bible don’t like the term propitiation because they say it implies pagan notions about fickle gods who need humoring and prefer instead the term expiation NRSV.

    THE NAMES OF JESUS RUBEL SHELLY 1999

  • Some modern students of the Bible don’t like the term propitiation because they say it implies pagan notions about fickle gods who need humoring and prefer instead the term expiation NRSV.

    THE NAMES OF JESUS RUBEL SHELLY 1999

  • "If an angel from heaven came from almighty God, and told you that Richard was condemned to be chained on that plateau for a hundred years in expiation of his sins before he could enter heaven, and gave you the choice between sharing his exile with him or a throne in the world beneath, which would you choose?"

    The Romance of Isabel, Lady Burton William Henry Burton Wilkins 1897

  • His own meritorious sufferings in expiation for sin were once for all completely filled up on the Cross.

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • But Rome's inference hence, is utterly false that the Church has a stock treasury of the merits and satisfactions of Christ and His apostles, out of which she may dispense indulgences; the context has no reference to sufferings in expiation of sin and productive of merit.

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • The word expiation does not once occur in the Scripture.

    The Vicarious Sacrifice, Grounded in Principles of Universal Obligation. 1802-1876 1871

  • Although the idea of expiation was not excluded (Lev., i, 4), it retired somewhat into the background, since in the complete destruction of the victim by fire the absolute submission of man to God was to find expression.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 13: Revelation-Stock 1840-1916 1913

  • Deity, the symbolic replacing of human life by an animal, the idea of expiation, etc., are declared to belong to a much later period of the history of sacrifice.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 13: Revelation-Stock 1840-1916 1913

  • A very necessary feature of the expiation is the marksmanship of my opponent.

    The Return of Tarzan 1913

  • A very necessary feature of the expiation is the marksmanship of my opponent.

    Return of Tarzan Edgar Rice Burroughs 1912

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