a·tone

(ə-tōn′)

v. a·toned, a·ton·ing, a·tones

v.intr.

1. To make amends, as for a sin or fault: These crimes must be atoned for.

2. Archaic To agree.

v.tr.

1. To expiate.

2. Archaic To conciliate; appease: "So heaven, atoned, shall dying Greece restore" (Alexander Pope).

3. Obsolete To reconcile or harmonize.

[Middle English atonen, to be reconciled, from at one, in agreement : at, at; see at + one, one; see one.]

a·ton′a·ble, a·tone′a·ble adj.

a·ton′er n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

References in periodicals archive

It powerfully invokes the biblical idea of repentance through tears and in so doing, connects Gaskell's fallen protagonist to Mary Magdalene, (4) a complex and mythologized figure who manages to straddle both the models of sexual sinner and devout atoner. From its earliest reviews, critics have struggled with the idea that Ruth can possibly fit either of these types as she is shown as committing her 'sin' out of ignorance and so surely has no reason to repent.

The tearful gaze in Elizabeth Gaskell's Ruth: crying, watching and nursing

In Turner's Christology here, Jesus functions not as a crucified atoner, but instead as a hard-working example of labor's redemptive qualities.

Reversing the curse: agricultural millennialism at the Illinois Industrial University (1)

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