confess
[kuh n-fes]
- to acknowledge or avow (a fault, crime, misdeed, weakness, etc.) by way of revelation.
- to own or admit as true: I must confess that I haven't read the book.
- to declare or acknowledge (one's sins), especially to God or a priest in order to obtain absolution.
- (of a priest) to hear the confession of (a person).
- to acknowledge one's belief or faith in; declare adherence to.
- to reveal by circumstances.
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- to make confession plead guilty; own: to confess to a crime.
- to make confession of sins, especially to a priest.
- (of a priest) to hear confession.
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Origin of confess
1300–50; Middle English confessen < Anglo-French, Old French confesser < Medieval Latin confessāre, verbal derivative of Latin confessus, past participle of confitērī to admit, confess, equivalent to con- con- + -fitērī, combining form of fatērī to admit
Synonyms
See more synonyms for confess on Thesaurus.com2. grant, concede.
Synonym study
1. See acknowledge.
Antonyms
1. conceal. 2. deny.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for confess
Contemporary Examples
I have to confess, I had no idea that Whitney had a rumored gay lover before reading about your role in this movie.
And, again, I now confess, I had an occasional Bourbon and stoogie on the cuff.
I will now confess that I spent some time in the lobby of the Willard Hotel myself.
Spitz “persuaded Schwend that his best chance would be to confess his activities with the RSHA and to cooperate with us.”
During their incarceration, they were humiliated and forced to confess on national television.
Historical Examples
I confess, Eudora, it pained me to see you listen to his idle flattery.
PhilotheaLydia Maria Child
How is it possible for me to confess, when I tell you I know nothing about her?
To confess the strange truth, he never told me you were musical.
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
Out of your bed and down on your knees to your own blessed father, and confess your sins.
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
It is not easy for an Anglo-Saxon to confess the realities of affection in vital intimacies.
Within the LawMarvin Dana
confess
- (when intr, often foll by to) to make an acknowledgment or admission (of faults, misdeeds, crimes, etc)
- (tr) to admit or grant to be true; concede
- Christianity, mainly RC Church to declare (one's sins) to God or to a priest as his representative, so as to obtain pardon and absolution
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Word Origin
C14: from Old French confesser, from Late Latin confessāre, from Latin confessus confessed, from confitērī to admit, from fatērī to acknowledge; related to Latin fārī to speak
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for confess
v.
late 14c., from Old French confesser (transitive and intransitive), from Vulgar Latin *confessare, from Latin confess-, past participle stem of confiteri "to acknowledge," from com- "together" (see com-) + fateri "to admit," akin to fari "speak" (see fame (n.)).
Its original religious sense was of one who avows his religion in spite of persecution or danger but does not suffer martyrdom. Old French confesser thus had a figurative sense of "to harm, hurt, make suffer." Related: Confessed; confessing. An Old English word for it was andettan.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper