ATONEMENT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does atonement mean? 

• ATONEMENT (noun)
  The noun ATONEMENT has 2 senses:

1. compensation for a wrong

2. the act of atoning for sin or wrongdoing (especially appeasing a deity)

  Familiarity information: ATONEMENT used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ATONEMENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Compensation for a wrong

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Synonyms:

atonement; expiation; satisfaction

Context example:

we were unable to get satisfaction from the local store

Hypernyms ("atonement" is a kind of...):

amends; damages; indemnification; indemnity; redress; restitution (a sum of money paid in compensation for loss or injury)

Derivation:

atone (make amends for)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of atoning for sin or wrongdoing (especially appeasing a deity)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

atonement; expiation; propitiation

Hypernyms ("atonement" is a kind of...):

redemption; salvation ((theology) the act of delivering from sin or saving from evil)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "atonement"):

amends; reparation (something done or paid in expiation of a wrong)

Derivation:

atone (turn away from sin or do penitence)

 Context examples 

May I make the only atonement in my power?

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

As to you, friend Watson, I owe you every atonement for having allowed your natural curiosity to remain so long unsatisfied.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Though it is difficult,” said Jane, “to guess in what way he can mean to make us the atonement he thinks our due, the wish is certainly to his credit.”

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

How to do her best by Harriet, was of more difficult decision;—how to spare her from any unnecessary pain; how to make her any possible atonement; how to appear least her enemy?

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

To treat her with unkindness, to speak of her slightingly is no atonement to Marianne—nor can I suppose it a relief to your own conscience.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

“Now,” she said, “is your pride appeased, you madwoman? Now has he made atonement to you—with his life! Do you hear?—His life!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But as high spirits and the love of fun were the causes of these pranks, he always managed to save himself by frank confession, honorable atonement, or the irresistible power of persuasion which he possessed in perfection.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

She knew him; she saw disdain in his eye, and could not venture to believe that he had determined to accept such an offering, as an atonement for all the insolence of the past.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

She said little, but every sentence aimed at cheerfulness, and though a sigh sometimes escaped her, it never passed away without the atonement of a smile.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

This was his plan of amends—of atonement—for inheriting their father's estate; and he thought it an excellent one, full of eligibility and suitableness, and excessively generous and disinterested on his own part.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)