Dictionary

expiate en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /ˈɛk.spi.eɪt/ (UK, US)

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰ Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰs Proto-Italic *eks Latin ex Latin ex- Proto-Indo-European *pewH- Proto-Italic *pīos Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Proto-Italic *pīāō Latin piō Latin expiō ▲ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos Proto-Italic *-ātos Latin -ātus Latin expiātus English expiate From Latin expiātus, past participle of expiō (“atone for”).

Meanings

1. (ambitransitive) To atone or make reparation for.
   • 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:
   • 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:
   • 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:
   • 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:
2. (transitive) 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, transitive) 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. (transitive) 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. (transitive) 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:

Forms

Deriveds

inexpiate · unexpiated

Relateds

expiator · expiatory · expiation

Translations (29)

enm beten (to atone) · es expiar (to make amends) · de gutmachen (to make amends) · cs napravit (to atone) · el εξιλεώνω (to atone) · hy քավել (to make amends) · fi sovittaa (to make amends) · cs odčinit (to make amends) · el εξιλεώνω (to make amends) · gd thoir èirig (to atone) · nl goedmaken (to make amends) · grc ἱλάσκομαι (to atone) · fi antaa synninpäästö (dated: to relieve of guilt) · hy քավել (to atone) · ru искупа́ть (to atone) · fi hyvittää (to make amends) · la expiō (to atone) · sv sona (to atone) · fi sovittaa (to atone) · cs odčinit (to atone) · es expiar (to atone) · cs napravit (to make amends) · it espiare (to atone) · de wiedergutmachen (to make amends) · bg изкупвам (to atone) · it espiare (to make amends) · grc ἱλάσκομαι (to make amends) · sv gottgöra (to atone) · nl boeten (to atone)