From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishexpiateex‧pi‧ate /ˈekspieɪt/ verb [transitive] formalCHANGE/BECOME DIFFERENT to show you are sorry for something you have done wrong by accepting your punishment willingly, or trying to do something to improve what you did She expiated her crime by becoming a nun. —expiation /ˌekspiˈeɪʃən/ noun [uncountable]→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
expiate• He spent the rest of his life trying to expiate for his sins.• Now, swept by red wave upon wave, she had to expiate her failure.• Aristodemus went home and found himself ostracized, a national villain until he expiated his disgrace by dying a hero at Plataea.• He can be redeemed, he can confess his sins, he can expiate his guilt.• But it helps to expiate our imagined sins if we have a bogeyman to hand, a Drug Baron.• As he walked he pondered dully on the crime he was trying to expiate, the murder of Clare's happiness.• Possessing no ecclesiastic franchise, they expiate their grief by posting an InMemoriam notice.Origin expiate (1500-1600) Latin past participle of expiare, from pius; → PIOUS 