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confess

verb
/kənˈfɛs/

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).

  1. derived from confessus
  2. derived from confesser
  3. derived from confesser
  4. inherited from confessen

Definitions

  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.

  2. To acknowledge faith in

    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. ›+ 3 more definitions

    1. 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; […]

    2. To disclose or reveal.

      • Tall thriving trees confess;d the fruitful mould.

    3. To profess one's love.

The neighborhood

Derived

a fault confessed is half redressed, confessable, confessee, confessingly, confessing Sam, confessive, fess, fess up, nonconfessing, reconfess, self-confessed, stand confessed, unconfess, unconfessing

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for confess. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA