confess
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: lifestyle
religion
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 calque of 告白 (kokuhaku).
Inflected forms:
form: confesses
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: confessing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: confessed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: confessed
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: To admit to the truth, particularly in the context of sins or crimes committed.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
transitive
examples: 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.
I must confess I was most pleased with a beautiful prospect that none of them have mentioned.
Sandusky needs to confess his guilt, said an attorney for the person identified in court as Victim No. 4.
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.
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.”
gloss: To acknowledge faith in; to profess belief in.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To unburden (oneself) of sins to God or a priest, in order to receive absolution.
pos: verb
examples: 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.
gloss: To hear or receive such a confession of sins from.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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; […]
gloss: To disclose or reveal.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Tall thriving trees confess;d the fruitful mould.
gloss: To profess one's love.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
Synonyms: acknowledge
admit
assent
avow
beknow
come clean
concede
confess
fess
fess up
front up
make a clean breast
own
own up
shrive
sing
spill one's guts
spill the beans
step forward
talk
tell all
unbosom
Antonyms: abjure
deny
disavow
disclaim
disown
reject
Related words: confession
confessional
confessor
own up
come clean
rat out
Derived words: a fault confessed is half redressed
confessable
confessee
confessingly
confessing Sam
confessive
fess
fess up
nonconfessing
reconfess
self-confessed
stand confessed
unconfess
unconfessing
Translations: