expiate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
expiates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
expiated,
past participle, past
-
expiating
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
expiatesimple
-
expiatessimple
-
have expiatedperfect
-
has expiatedperfect
-
am expiatingprogressive
-
are expiatingprogressive
-
is expiatingprogressive
-
have been expiatingperfect progressive
-
has been expiatingperfect progressive
Past
-
expiatedsimple
-
had expiatedperfect
-
was expiatingprogressive
-
were expiatingprogressive
-
had been expiatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of expiate
1585–95; < Latin expiātus (past participle of expiāre to atone for, make good), equivalent to ex- ex- 1 + piā ( re ) to propitiate ( see pious) + -tus past participle suffix
Explanation
In the fairy tale, the baker must expiate his father’s sins by bringing the witch three ingredients for a magic potion: a cow, a cape and a slipper. Expiate means to make amends or atone for a wrong you or someone else has committed. After the incident on the hill, a mortified Jill expiated her guilt by buying Jack a brand new crown. The shiny new crown served as compensation, or expiation, for the broken one. That it cost her so dearly made the expiatory gesture especially meaningful to poor Jack.
Vocabulary lists containing expiate
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He wanted to expiate “an immense weight of guilt” and determined to “submerge myself, to get right down among the oppressed, to be one of them and on their side against their tyrants.”
From Slate ● Jun. 30, 2020
You repeat a trauma continually, until you expiate it.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 8, 2019
Titch wants to expiate the misdeeds of his childhood, and seeks the approval of his remote, inconstant father.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 17, 2018
She helps him expiate his guilt by contextualizing it in the story of his people.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2017
He also seemed to be trying to do something more than expiate guilt.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
This belief teaches that each man is bound to an endless series of reincarnated lives, in each of which he expiates the sins accumulated in the life before.
From Time Magazine Archive
At long last sister Anne expiates her negligence by dying.
From Time Magazine Archive
By bearing the sin of the world Christ expiates it, and thus takes it away.
From Companion to the Bible by Barrows, E. P. (Elijah Porter)
But in Purgatory, perhaps, where one suffers, where one expiates the weaknesses of the heart, the doubts of the soul, the half-inclinations to evil.
From Purgatory by Sadlier, Mrs. James
Thus, and these are extreme afflictions, this hapless wight expiates, and her expiation is brought upon her by her grandeur.
From The Memoirs of Victor Hugo by Hugo, Victor
The promise is that our guilt can be expiated by making money.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 3, 2017
Generally, there is—much later—a period of national reckoning when the sins of the moment of crisis are both expiated and forgiven.
From Slate ● Nov. 16, 2015
To some, the sins of Auschwitz were never expiated; instead, a guilty society arose sleek and fat from defeat.
From Time Magazine Archive
Had the suffering of the vanquished expiated their guilt?
From Time Magazine Archive
"He expiated his crimes two weeks ago at Fort Wilhelmina, your excellency."
From The Argus Pheasant by Beecham, John Charles
Farouk eventually settles in Ireland, and his narrative is braided with the stories of two other shattered men there: Lampy, young and lovelorn, and John, frantically expiating for a life of violence.
From New York Times ● Jul. 31, 2018
If John Edwards had been as truthful and forthcoming about his personal misdeeds, he might not be as much of a pariah as he remains even after expiating for his sins in Haiti.
From New York Times ● Feb. 20, 2010
This method of reckoning indulgences is based on the Early Christian custom of expiating sins with public-penance which often lasted days and even years.
From Time Magazine Archive
He spent a large part of his life expiating one unfortunate deed after another and never rebelling against the almost impossible demands made upon him.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
What means were there for wiping out offences against this rule, and sins when committed, for turning aside the anger of Mithra, for expiating falsehood, lying, and deception?
From The History of Antiquity Vol. V. by Duncker, Max
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
