confess
verbcommon in dialogue
- //kənˈfɛs//
To admit to the truth, particularly in the context of sins or crimes committed.
verb
- 1
To admit to the truth, particularly in the context of sins or crimes committed.
I confess to spray-painting all over that mural!
I confess that I am a sinner.
I never gave it him. Send for him hither, / And let him confess a truth.
And there confess / Humbly our faults, and pardon beg.
- 2
To acknowledge faith in; to profess belief in.
Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me before men, him will I confess, also, before my Father which is in heaven.
For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both.
- 3
To unburden (oneself) of sins to God or a priest, in order to receive absolution.
If we confesse our sinnes, hee is faithfull, & iust to forgiue vs our sinnes, and to cleanse vs from all vnrighteousnesse.
Our beautiful votary took an opportunity of confessing herself to this celebrated father.
- 4
To hear or receive such a confession of sins from.
1523–1525, John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners (translator), Froissart's Chronicles He […] heard mass, and the prince, his son, with him, and the most part of his company were confessed.
A jealous man confesses his wife under a priest's habit, who tells him that she is visited every night by a friar; […]
- 5
To disclose or reveal.
Tall thriving trees confess;d the fruitful mould.
- 6
To profess one's love.
Etymology
From Middle English confessen, from Anglo-Norman confesser, from Old French confesser, from Latin confessus (Old French confés), past participle of cōnfiteor (“to confess, admit”) from con- + fateor (“to admit”). Displaced Middle English andetten (“to confess, admit”) (from Old English andettan). Doublet of confiteor. Sense 6 is a semantic loan from Japanese 告(こく)白(はく) (kokuhaku).
Forms
- past tense
- confessed
- past participle
- confessed
- present participle
- confessing
- third person singular
- confesses
confess · To admit to the truth, particularly in the context of sins or crimes committed.
confessed · Which one admits or avows.confessing · The act of making a confession.confession · The open admittance of having done something (especially…