Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To make amends or reparation for; atone for.
  • intransitive verb To make amends; atone.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To atone for; make satisfaction or reparation for; remove or endeavor to remove the moral guilt of (a crime or evil act), or counteract its evil effects, by suffering a penalty or doing some counterbalancing good.
  • To avert by certain observances.
  • Expired.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To extinguish the guilt of by sufferance of penalty or some equivalent; to make complete satisfaction for; to atone for; to make amends for; to make expiation for.
  • transitive verb obsolete To purify with sacred rites.
  • adjective obsolete Terminated.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive or intransitive To atone or make reparation for.
  • verb transitive To make amends or pay the penalty for.
  • verb transitive, obsolete To relieve or cleanse of guilt.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make amends for

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin expiāre, expiāt- : ex-, intensive pref.; see ex– + piāre, to atone (from pius, devout).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin expiatum, past participle of expiō ("atone for").

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