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Expiate vs Recompense - What's the difference?

expiate | recompense |

In transitive terms the difference between expiate and recompense

is that expiate is to make amends or pay the penalty for while recompense is to give (something) in return; to pay back; to pay, as something earned or deserved.

As verbs the difference between expiate and recompense

is that expiate is to atone or make reparation for while recompense is to reward or repay (someone) for something done, given etc.

As a noun recompense is

an equivalent returned for anything given, done, or suffered; compensation; reward; amends; requital.

expiate

English

Verb

  • (transitive, or, intransitive) To atone or make reparation for.
  • * Clarendon
    • The Treasurer obliged himself to expiate the injury.
  • * 1888 , Leo XIII, "",
    • Thus those pious souls who expiate the remainder of their sins amidst such tortures will receive a special and opportune consolation,
  • * 1913 , ,
    • I am going out to expiate a great wrong, Paul. A very necessary feature of the expiation is the marksmanship of my opponent.
  • To make amends or pay the penalty for.
  • * 1876 , ,
    • He had only to live and expiate in solitude the crimes which he had committed.
  • (obsolete) To relieve or cleanse of guilt.
  • * 1829 , , Larcher's Notes on Herodotus , vol. 2, p. 195,
    • and Epimenides was brought from Crete to expiate the city.
  • To purify with sacred rites.
  • * Bible, Deuteronomy xviii. 10 (Douay version)
    • Neither let there be found among you any one that shall expiate his son or daughter, making them to pass through the fire.

    Usage notes

    Intransitive use, constructed with (for) (like (atone)), is obsolete in Christian usage, but fairly common in informal discussions of Islam.

    Related terms

    * expiation * expiator * expiatory ----

    recompense

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An equivalent returned for anything given, done, or suffered; compensation; reward; amends; requital.
  • That which compensates for an injury.
    • He offered money as recompense''' for the damage, but what the injured party wanted as '''recompense was an apology.

    Synonyms

    * * (l) * restitution

    Verb

    (recompens)
  • To reward or repay (someone) for something done, given etc.
  • * 1596 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , IV.ii:
    • She in regard thereof him recompenst / With golden words, and goodly countenance, / And such fond fauours sparingly dispenst
  • * Shakespeare
    • He cannot recompense me better.
  • To give compensation for an injury.
    • The judge ordered the defendant to recompense the plaintiff by paying $100.
  • To give (something) in return; to pay back; to pay, as something earned or deserved.
  • * Bible, Rom. xii. 17
    • Recompense to no man evil for evil.