atone

Meaning

Verb

• To make reparation, compensation, amends or satisfaction for an offence, crime, mistake or deficiency.
• To bring at one or at concordance; to reconcile; to suffer appeasement.
• To agree or accord; to be in accordance or harmony.
• To unite in making.
• To absolve (someone else) of wrongdoing, especially by standing as an equivalent.

Origin

• From atone, from Middle English atone, attone, atoon, equivalent to at + one. Compare Latin adūnō for the similar formation. Regarding the different phonological development of atone and one, see the note in one.