expiate
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɛk.spi.eɪt/
Forms: form: expiates
form: expiating
form: expiated
form: expiated
Etymology: From Latin expiātus, past participle of expiō (“atone for”).
Senses: examples: text: The Treasurer obliged himself to expiate the injury.
ref: (Can we date this quote?), 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: The Theater:
text: At laſt, he diſtinctly pronounced theſe three words, LET THIS EXPIATE! And then, his head ſinking on his pillow, he expired; […]
ref: 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter CXIII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume VII, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], →OCLC, page 415:
text: Thus those pious souls who expiate the remainder of their sins amidst such tortures will receive a special and opportune consolation, […]
ref: 1888, Leo XIII, Quod Anniversarius:
text: I am going out to expiate a great wrong, Paul. A very necessary feature of the expiation is the marksmanship of my opponent.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 2010, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, New York: Random House, →ISBN, page 335:
glosses: To atone or make reparation for.
examples: text: He had only to live and expiate in solitude the crimes which he had committed.
ref: 1876, Jules Verne, translated by Stephen W. White, The Mysterious Island, part 2, chapter 17:
text: 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.
ref: 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:
glosses: To make amends or pay the penalty for.
examples: text: […] and Epimenides was brought from Crete to expiate the city.
ref: 1829, Pierre Henri Larcher, Larcher's Notes on Herodotus, volume 2, page 195:
glosses: To relieve or cleanse of guilt.
examples: text: 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,
ref: 1609, The Holie Bible, […] (Douay–Rheims Bible), Doway: Lavrence Kellam, […], →OCLC, Devteronomie 18:10, page 435:
glosses: To purify with sacred rites.
examples: text: But when in thee times forrwes I behould, / Then look I death my daies ſhould expiate.
ref: 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:
glosses: To wind up, bring to an end.
Derived terms: inexpiate
unexpiated
Related terms: expiation
expiator
expiatory