expiate
verbUK, US /ˈɛk.spi.eɪt/
Etymology From Latin expiātus, past participle of expiō (“atone for”).
1
Ambitransitive To 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:
- 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:
3 more examples
- 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
To 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:
- 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
Obsolete To 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
To 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
To 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:
- Derived terms
- inexpiate, unexpiated