expiate

present singular third person expiates · participle present expiating · participle past expiated · past expiated

1. ambitransitiveTo atone or make reparation for.

   The Treasurer obliged himself to expiate the injury.

   1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, (please specify |book=I to XVI), in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the [Sheldonian] Theater

   4 more examples

   At laſt, he diſtinctly pronounced theſe three words, LET THIS EXPIATE! And then, his head ſinking on his pillow, he expired; […]

   1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter CXIII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume VII, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 415

   Thus those pious souls who expiate the remainder of their sins amidst such tortures will receive a special and opportune consolation, […]

   1888, Leo XIII, Quod Anniversarius

   I am going out to expiate a great wrong, Paul. A very necessary feature of the expiation is the marksmanship of my opponent.

   1913 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter VI, in The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg, published March 1915, →OCLC

   The first change of regime came with the release of my more difficult mathematical, empirical, and scholarly work in a dozen articles in a variety of journals in an attempt to expiate my crime of having sold too many books.

   2010, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, New York: Random House, →ISBN, page 335

2. transitiveTo make amends or pay the penalty for.

   He had only to live and expiate in solitude the crimes which he had committed.

   1876, Jules Verne, translated by Stephen W. White, The Mysterious Island, part 2, chapter 17

   1 more example

   And when it was required of him by the rigid laws of a haphazard justice, which in retrospect seems like every night of the week, he pressed his limp forelock into a filthy washbasin, clutched a tap in each throbbing hand, and expiated a string of crimes he didn't know he had committed until they were thoughtfully explained to him between each stroke by Mr. Willow or his representatives.

   1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy

3. obsoletetransitiveTo relieve or cleanse of guilt.

   […] and Epimenides was brought from Crete to expiate the city.

   1829, Pierre Henri Larcher, Larcher's Notes on Herodotus, volume 2, page 195

4. transitiveTo purify with sacred rites.

   Neither let there be found in thee any that shal expiate his ſonne, or daughter, making them to paſſe through the fyre: or that demandeth of ſouthſayers, and obſerueth dreames and diuinations, neither let there be a ſorcerer,

   1609, The Holie Bible, […] (Douay–Rheims Bible), Doway: Laurence Kellam, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomie 18:10, page 435

5. transitiveTo wind up, bring to an end.

   But when in thee times forrwes I behould, / Then look I death my daies ſhould expiate.

   1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 22”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC, lines 3–4