expiatory a having power to atone for or offered by way of expiation or propitiation expiatory (or propitiatory) sacrifice Usage(s) As the state Librarian dryly explained: "It is an expiatory sacrifice to veracity, to good sense and true taste. Roots, for all its soap opera, sex and violence, seems to have had a certain expiatory effect. But it is not to lastStine is married to another, while Joachim is wedded only to his simple expiatory life. Synonym(s) expiative propitiatory