Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Expiation

Expiation , noun

[Latin expiatio: compareF. expiation]

1.
The act of making satisfaction or atonement for any crime or fault; the extinguishing of guilt by suffering or penalty.
His liberality seemed to have something in it of self-abasement and expiation. — W. Irving
2.
The means by which reparation or atonement for crimes or sins is made; an expiatory sacrifice or offering; an atonement.
Those shadowy expiations weak, The blood of bulls and goats. — Milton
3.
An act by which the threats of prodigies were averted among the ancient heathen. [Obsolete] — Hayward