in theology, a sacrifice offered to God to assuage his wrath and render him propitious. Among the Jews there were both ordinary and public sacrifices, as holocausts, &c., offered by way of thanksgiving; and extraordinary ones, offered by particular persons guilty of any crime, by way of propitiation. The Roman church believe the mass to be a sacrifice of propitiation for the living and the dead. The reformed churches allow of no propitiation but that one offered by Jesus Christ on the cross. See Sacrifice.