expiate

expiate vb Expiate, atone mean to make amends or give satisfaction for an offense, a sin, a crime, or a wrong. The same distinctions in implications and connotations are observable in their derivative nouns expiation and atonement.

Expiate and expiation imply an attempt to undo the wrong one has done by suffering a penalty, by doing penance, or by making reparation or redress

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let me here, as I deserve, pay on my punishment, and expiate, if possible, my crime— Milton

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unless that man in there is to be given a chance of expiation in another life, then capital punishment is a damnable horror— Mackenzie

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Atone and atonement have been greatly colored in their meanings by theological controversies. The basic implication of reconciliation became mixed with and sometimes subordinated to other implications (as appeasement, propitiation, or reparation). In general use atone (usually with for) and atonement emphasize a restoration through some compensation of a balance that has been lost. When the reference is to an offense, sin, or crime the words usually imply expiation, but they stress the rendering of satisfaction for the evil that has been done by acts that are good or meritorious; thus, one expiates a sin by doing penance for it, but one atones for it by leading a good life afterwards

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she hated herself for this movement of envy . . . and tried to atone for it by a softened manner and a more anxious regard for Charlotte's feelings— Wharton

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Sometimes a deficiency or a default rather than an offense may be atoned for (as by an excess of something else that is equally desirable)

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for those who kneel beside us at altars not Thine own, who lack the lights that guide us, Lord, let their faith atone!—Kipling

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Analogous words: redress, remedy, rectify, *correct, amend: redeem, deliver, save (see RESCUE)