confess
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /kənˈfɛs/
rhymes: -ɛs
Forms: form: confesses
form: confessing
form: confessed
form: confessed
Etymology: From Middle English confessen, from Anglo-Norman confesser, from Old French confesser, from Latin confessus (Old French confés), past participle of cōnfiteor (“I confess, I admit”) from con- + fateor (“I admit”). Displaced Middle English andetten (“to confess, admit”) (from Old English andettan). Doublet of confiteor.
Sense 6 is a calque of 告白 (kokuhaku).
Senses: examples: text: I confess to spray-painting all over that mural!
text: I confess that I am a sinner.
text: I never gave it him. Send for him hither, / And let him confess a truth.
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
text: And there confess / Humbly our faults, and pardon beg.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: I must confess I was most pleased with a beautiful prospect that none of them have mentioned.
ref: 1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
text: Sandusky needs to confess his guilt, said an attorney for the person identified in court as Victim No. 4.
ref: 2012 October 8, Susan Candiotti and Jason Carroll, “Jerry Sandusky proclaims his innocence in jailhouse audio recording”, in CNN:
text: In an emotional scene captured on police body camera, he repeatedly confesses to Blodgett’s killing, even telling authorities the weapon he used and where he buried the victim’s body, the arrest affidavit states.
ref: 2023 June 2, Cheri Mossburg, Andi Babineau and Christal Hayes, “‘I’m just tired of covering it up’: Guilt drives man to confess to murder 15 years after killing, police say”, in CNN:
text: Thirty-six hours later, Perez was on a psychiatric hold in a hospital, having been pressured into confessing he killed his dad and trying to take his own life. […] Judge Gee said the detectives’ tactics “indisputably led to Perez’s subjective confusion and disorientation, to the point that he falsely confessed to killing his father, and tried to take his own life.”
ref: 2024 September 5, Rachel Clarke and Shimon Prokupecz, “Police pressured him to confess to a murder that never happened”, in CNN:
glosses: To admit to the truth, particularly in the context of sins or crimes committed.
examples: text: Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me before men, him will I confess, also, before my Father which is in heaven.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 10:32:
text: For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 23:8:
glosses: To acknowledge faith in; to profess belief in.
examples: text: If we confesse our sinnes, hee is faithfull, & iust to forgiue vs our sinnes, and to cleanse vs from all vnrighteousnesse.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 John 1:9:
text: Our beautiful votary took an opportunity of confessing herself to this celebrated father.
ref: 1710 September 18 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “THURSDAY, September 7, 1710”, in The Spectator, number 1647; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:
topics: lifestyle
religion
glosses: To unburden (oneself) of sins to God or a priest, in order to receive absolution.
examples: text: 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.
text: A jealous man confesses his wife under a priest's habit, who tells him that she is visited every night by a friar; […]
ref: 1867, W. K. Kelly, The Decameron: or ten day's entertainment of Boccaccio. A revised translation:
topics: lifestyle
religion
glosses: To hear or receive such a confession of sins from.
examples: text: Tall thriving trees confess;d the fruitful mould.
ref: 1725, Homer, “Book VII”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume II, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC:
glosses: To disclose or reveal.
topics: media
glosses: To profess one's love.
Synonyms: word: acknowledge
word: admit
word: assent
word: avow
word: beknow
word: come clean
word: concede
word: confess
word: fess
word: fess up
word: front up
word: make a clean breast
word: own
word: own up
word: shrive
word: sing
word: spill one's guts
word: spill the beans
word: step forward
word: talk
word: tell all
word: unbosom
Hypernyms: word: divulge
word: surrender
Derived terms: a fault confessed is half redressed
confessable
confessee
confessingly
confessing Sam
confessive
fess
fess up
nonconfessing
reconfess
self-confessed
stand confessed
unconfess
unconfessing
Related terms: word: confession
word: confessional
word: confessor
word: own up
word: come clean
word: rat out