Definitions

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

  • adjective Possible to expiate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Capable of being expiated or atoned for: as, an expiable offense; expiable guilt.

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

  • adjective Capable of being expiated or atoned for

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

  • adjective Capable of being expiated or atoned for.

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

  • adjective capable of being atoned for

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

expiate +‎ -able

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Examples

  • Missing silver spoons and cooked petty cash were trivialities usually expiable at the price of a boot-assisted dismissal; but this --!

    The Yellow Claw Sax Rohmer 1921

  • Camerino had come on first; in an access of jealous fury the Count had struck Camerino in the face; and this outrage, I know not how justly, was deemed expiable before the other.

    The Diary of a Man of Fifty Henry James 1879

  • Jewess was deemed a sin, scarce expiable; and Isabel conceived all that horror of her son's offence which was natural in a pious mother and a haughty queen.

    Leila or, the Siege of Granada, Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • Jewess was deemed a sin, scarce expiable; and Isabel conceived all that horror of her son's offence which was natural in a pious mother and a haughty queen.

    Leila or, the Siege of Granada, Book III. Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • In 1794 the ruffians, Danton and Robespierre, fell in succession, and expiated their crimes (if indeed such crimes be expiable at all) on that guillotine which they had so often deluged with the blood of innocence, even of female innocence and beauty.

    Celebration in Baltimore of the Triumph of Liberty in France William Wirt 1803

  • "Had he only robbed the mail-coach, or broken into a gentleman's house, the offence might have been expiable; but to rob a clergyman, and a rector too!

    Paul Clifford — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • "Had he only robbed the mail-coach, or broken into a gentleman's house, the offence might have been expiable; but to rob a clergyman, and a rector too!

    Paul Clifford — Volume 02 Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

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