confide
Americanverb (used without object)
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to impart secrets trustfully; discuss private matters or problems (usually followed byin ).
She confides in no one but her husband.
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to have full trust; have faith.
They confided in their own ability.
verb (used with object)
verb
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to disclose (secret or personal matters) in confidence (to); reveal in private (to)
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to have complete trust
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(tr) to entrust into another's keeping
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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confidesimple
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confidessimple
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have confidedperfect
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has confidedperfect
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am confidingprogressive
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are confidingprogressive
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is confidingprogressive
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have been confidingperfect progressive
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has been confidingperfect progressive
Past
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confidedsimple
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had confidedperfect
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was confidingprogressive
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were confidingprogressive
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had been confidingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of confide
First recorded in 1625–35; from Latin confīdere, from con- con- + fīdere “to trust” (akin to fidēs “faith, trust”; see fidelity)
Explanation
To confide in someone is to tell them something privately. We confide in people we trust. We all have secrets and subjects that are hard to talk about. When we want to talk about something sensitive, we look for someone to confide in: a person we trust not to blab about our business to the rest of the world. Most people confide in close friends or family, often to get advice. If you tell someone a secret, and then they tell ten of their friends, you made a mistake by confiding in that person.
Vocabulary lists containing confide
"Of Mice and Men"
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List 15
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Bronx Masquerade
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Always there for him to confide in, complain to and entrust with his continually evolving thoughts on Jewish life and theology, Kaplan called these ledger-size handwritten volumes his “communings of the spirit.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 24, 2026
“School should be a place where young people can feel safe and confident they can confide in a teacher.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2026
It might be tempting to confide in colleagues that you’re having a hard time connecting with your manager, but that probably isn’t a good idea, Williams says.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 28, 2026
She started to confide in friends about stress, or things that bothered her, which otherwise would have stayed inside.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 2026
My close friendship with Helmut led me to confide in him about my dilemma.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
In Naiguata, a small coastal town famous for its traditional "dancing devils" festival, Cesar Rendon, 49, a former inmate who lived in the town's halfway house, confides that he "unburdened himself" with Apostol.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
She confides her joy in working there and also tells John that he was abandoned as a baby on the steps of the store.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
"He is a very nice man, but he is a hard man too," one of them confides.
From BBC ● Mar. 8, 2025
“For the decision I took that day, I will never forgive the Russians,” this woman confides.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2024
Once the engagement is public, Theo confides in his sister Lies that he doesn’t know how happy his friend will be with Annie.
From "Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers" by Deborah Heiligman
"I know who it was," he confided to the man he did not know was recording him.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
His partner confided that he, too, had about $12,000 of credit-card debt and had recently started working with Consolidated Credit, a nonprofit that provides debt-management programs to help people pay down their balances.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
Afterward, the claim says, she confided in a friend, a retired firefighter, who reported the incident to law enforcement.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2026
After all his travels, he has confided that his favourite place remains Richmond, an affluent and leafy suburb in southwest London.
From Barron's ● May 6, 2026
Perhaps Vaughan, blind to his friend’s machinations, had mentioned the investigation that he had been pursuing and confided the location of the hideout containing his money and evidence.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
Ms. Applegate has a smoky, confiding voice that swings along but shifts register when the material warrants it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
Anthony never married, and she considered herself to some degree Stanton’s amanuensis, confiding to an intimate that she felt that her best work had been “making the way clear” for her friend.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 27, 2026
After their talk, Rebecca stopped confiding about Yolanda.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 2025
It was the best part of a couple of years ago, and a senior government figure was confiding in me about listening in on a call between the then prime minister and President Biden.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2024
“Are you going to help about the fair, dear?” asked Mrs. Carrol, as Amy sat down beside her with the confiding air elderly people like so well in the young.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
