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:
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
In his letter he also quoted a Buddhist text: “Can a new wrong expiate old wrongs?”
From New York Times ● Oct. 28, 2016
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
The daughter expiates her foolish love in a convent.
From The Puppet Crown by Harold MacGrath
The soul, in its transmigration, expiates the sins committed in a former state of being.
From Nala and Damayanti and Other Poems by Henry Hart Milman
Fourth act—he expiates his crime and sees a chance to regain happiness after a long, weary probation.
From The Galaxy, April, 1877 Vol. XXIII.—April, 1877.—No. 4. by Various
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
If friends persuaded him to eat more he expiated by fasting.
From Time Magazine Archive
Had the suffering of the vanquished expiated their guilt?
From Time Magazine Archive
It will be felt that he has amply expiated the political offence of being a Whig Head-Centre, and we trust that an honourable future is in store for him.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 62, Jan 13, 1872 by Various
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
The accusation and misery which sin brings generally either make us feel that we are expiating sin by what we suffer, or put us into a self-defensive attitude.
From The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. I by Marcus Dods
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.
