Confess

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Confess \Con*fess"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Confessed}; p. pr. &
     vb. n. {Confessing}.] [F. confesser, fr. L. confessus, p. p.
     of confiteri to confess; con- + fateri to confess; akin to
     fari to speak. See 2d {Ban}, {Fame}.]
     1. To make acknowledgment or avowal in a matter pertaining to
        one's self; to acknowledge, own, or admit, as a crime, a


        fault, a debt.
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              And there confess
              Humbly our faults, and pardon beg.    --Milton.
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              I must confess I was most pleased with a beautiful
              prospect that none of them have mentioned.
                                                    --Addison.
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     2. To acknowledge faith in; to profess belief in.
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              Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me before men,
              him will I confess, also, before my Father which is
              in heaven.                            --Matt. x. 32.
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              For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection,
              neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess
              both.                                 --Acts xxiii.
                                                    8.
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     3. To admit as true; to assent to; to acknowledge, as after a
        previous doubt, denial, or concealment.
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              I never gave it him. Send for him hither,
              And let him confess a truth.          --Shak.
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              As I confess it needs must be.        --Tennyson.
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              As an actor confessed without rival to shine.
                                                    --Goldsmith.
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     4. (Eccl.)
        (a) To make known or acknowledge, as one's sins to a
            priest, in order to receive absolution; -- sometimes
            followed by the reflexive pronoun.
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                  Our beautiful votary took an opportunity of
                  confessing herself to this celebrated father.
                                                    --Addison.
        (b) To hear or receive such confession; -- said of a
            priest.
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                  He . . . heard mass, and the prince, his son,
                  with him, and the most part of his company were
                  confessed.                        --Ld. Berners.
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     5. To disclose or reveal, as an effect discloses its cause;
        to prove; to attest.
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              Tall thriving trees confessed the fruitful mold.
                                                    --Pope.
  
     Syn: Admit; grant; concede; avow; own; assent; recognize;
          prove; exhibit; attest.
  
     Usage: {To Confess}, {Acknowledge}, {Avow}. Acknowledge is
            opposed to conceal. We acknowledge what we feel must
            or ought to be made known. (See {Acknowledge}.) Avow
            is opposed to withhold. We avow when we make an open
            and public declaration, as against obloquy or
            opposition; as, to avow one's principles; to avow
            one's participation in some act. Confess is opposed to
            deny. We confess (in the ordinary sense of the word)
            what we feel to have been wrong; as, to confess one's
            errors or faults. We sometimes use confess and
            acknowledge when there is no admission of our being in
            the wrong; as, this, I confess, is my opinion; I
            acknowledge I have always thought so; but in these
            cases we mean simply to imply that others may perhaps
            think us in the wrong, and hence we use the words by
            way of deference to their opinions. It was in this way
            that the early Christians were led to use the Latin
            confiteor and confessio fidei to denote the public
            declaration of their faith in Christianity; and hence
            the corresponding use in English of the verb confess
            and the noun confession.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Confess \Con*fess"\, v. i.
     1. To make confession; to disclose sins or faults, or the
        state of the conscience.
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              Every tongue shall confess to God.    --Rom. xiv.
                                                    11.
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     2. To acknowledge; to admit; to concede.
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              But since
              (And I confess with right) you think me bound.
                                                    --Tennyson.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  confess
       v 1: confess to a punishable or reprehensible deed, usually under
            pressure [syn: {squeal}, {shrive}]
       2: admit, make a clean breast of; "She confessed that she had
          taken the money" [syn: {concede}, {profess}]
       3: confess to God in the presence of a priest, as in the
          Catholic faith

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  84 Moby Thesaurus words for "confess":
     absolve, accept, account for, accredit with, accrete to,
     acknowledge, administer absolution, administer extreme unction,
     admit, admit everything, affirm, agree provisionally, allow,
     apply to, ascribe to, assent grudgingly, assert, asseverate,
     assign to, attach to, attribute to, aver, avouch, avow, blame,
     blame for, blame on, bring home to, charge on, charge to,
     come clean, concede, confirm, connect with, cop a plea,
     credit with, declare, disclose, divulge, express general agreement,
     express the belief, fasten upon, father upon, fix on, fix upon,
     go along with, grant, hang on, hear confession, impute to, lay to,
     let on, make confession, not oppose, open up, out with it, own,
     own up, pin on, pinpoint, place upon, plead guilty, point to,
     profess, receive absolution, recognize, refer to, reveal,
     saddle on, saddle with, set down to, settle upon, shrive, spill,
     spill it, spit it out, state, swear, tell all, tell the truth,
     testify, vow, warrant, yield