Also 7 expiat. [f. L. expiāt- ppl. stem of expiāre to make satisfaction, f. ex- (see EX- pref.1) + piāre to seek to appease (by sacrifice), f. pius devout.]
† 1. trans. To avert (evil) by religious ceremonies; to avert the evil portended by (a prodigy or prophecy). Obs. exc. Antiq.
1611. Bible, Isa. xlvii. 11. Mischiefe shall fall vpon thee, thou shalt not be able to put it off [marg. expiate].
1652. Brome, Joviall Crew, II. Wks. 1873, III. 381. You bring him a perpetual Peace and Joy By expiating the Prophecy that torments him.
1865. Dyer, Hist. City Rome, II. (1883), 114. Frequent showers of stones … could … be expiated only by bringing to Rome Cybele, or the Idæan mother.
† 2. To cleanse, purify (a person, a city) from guilt or pollution by religious ceremonies. Occas. Const. of. Obs.
1603. Florio, Montaigne (1632), 292. Iphigenia, in the post of Aulis, should by her death and sacrifice discharge and expiate, towards God, the Grecians armie of the offences, which they had committed.
1618. Bolton, Florus, I. xi. (1636), 41. That the City … might … seeme to have been … hallowed, and expiated.
1652. Gaule, Magastrom., 262. The Elæans condemned the Oxe for the murder, and … were admonished by the Delphick Oracle, to expiate the Oxe.
1655–60. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 57/2. He Lustrated and Expiated the City.
3. To do away or extinguish the guilt of (one’s sin); to offer or serve as a propitiation for. † To expiate oneself (rare): to do penance.
1608. Bp. Hall, Char. Virtues & Vices, II. 89. No repentance can expiate that [sin].
1634. Habington, Castara (Arb.), 134. Once dead, his sin Man cannot expiate with teares.
1673. Marvell, Reh. Transp., II. 379. J. M. … has ever since expiated himself in a retired silence.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 99, ¶ 7. An Affront that nothing but Blood can expiate.
1736. Butler, Anal., II. v. Wks. 1874, I. 213. Repentance alone being sufficient to expiate guilt, appears to be contrary to the general sense of mankind.
1847. Grote, Greece, II. xxxii. (1849), IV. 279. The Agyllæans were still expiating the sin by a periodical solemnity.
1867. Smiles, Huguenots Eng., ix. (1880), 154. By punishing them, he flattered himself that he was expiating his own sins.
4. To pay the penalty of.
1665. Manley, Grotius’ Low-C. Warrs, 691. These Pirats … expiated their inhumane Villanies with their heads.
1823. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. xxiii. (1865), 179. The child and parent … expiating their fallen condition upon … [a] shopboard.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 655. Already some of the girls who had presented the standard to Monmouth at Taunton had cruelly expiated their offence.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. iii. 43. He has to expiate the act with his life.
5. To make amends or reparation for.
a. 1626. Bacon, Speech, in Rem. (1679), 132. Such … Felons, who … shall implore His Majesty’s … Permission to expiate their Offences by their Assiduous Labours.
1774. Pennant, Tour Scot. in 1772, 239. [They] expiated their crime by restoring the plunder.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Result, Wks. (Bohn), II. 135. They are expiating the wrongs of India by benefits.
† 6. intr. To make expiation for. Obs.
1600. Holland, Livy (1686), I. I. xiv. 10. To expiate for the injuries of the Embassadours.
1681–6. J. Scott, Chr. Life (1747), III. 590. My Mediation, which was … to expiate for you as a Priest.
1710. Prideaux, Orig. Tithes, iv. 165. He gave … Tithes … to expiate for the Death of Ethelbert.
1778. Hist. Eliza Warwick, II. 131. I trust this will expiate for all my offences towards her.
1827. Southey, Hist. Persian War, II. 692. His success in sieges did not expiate … for the loss in men.
† 7. To extinguish (a person’s rage) by suffering it to the full; to end (one’s sorrows, a suffering life) by death. Obs.
1594. Marlowe & Nashe, Dido, V. ii. Cursed Iarbas, die to expiate The grief that tires upon thine inward soul!
1594. [see EXPIATE ppl. a.].
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonn., xxii. Then look I death my daies should expiate.
1610. Tofte, Honour’s Acad., 39. Nothing could appease and expiat his cankred rage.
1615. T. Adams, Lycanthropy, 29. Somewhat to expiate their savage fury.
Hence Expiated, Expiating ppl. adjs., Expiatist = EXPIATOR.
1840. G. S. Faber, Regeneration, 38. A light from above had infused itself into my expiated … bosom.
1793. Pennant, London (1813), 270. Lying within their [friaries’] expiating walls.
1847. R. W. Hamilton, Rewards & Punishm., vi. 331 (Ogilvie). The self-expiatist everywhere confesses it.
