confess

English

Etymology

From Middle English confessen, from Anglo-Norman confesser, from Old French confesser, from Latin confessus (Old French confés), past participle of cōnfiteor (“I confess, I admit”) from con- + fateor (“I admit”). Displaced Middle English andetten (“to confess, admit”) (from Old English andettan). Doublet of confiteor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kənˈfɛs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛs

Verb

confess (third-person singular simple present confesses, present participle confessing, simple past and past participle confessed)

2. (intransitive, transitive) 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.

   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     I never gave it him. Send for him hither, / And let him confess a truth.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

     And there confess / Humbly our faults, and pardon beg.

   • 1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

     I must confess I was most pleased with a beautiful prospect that none of them have mentioned.

3. (transitive) To acknowledge faith in; to profess belief in.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Matthew 10:32:

     Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me before men, him will I confess, also, before my Father which is in heaven.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Acts 23:8:

     For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both.

4. (religion) To unburden (oneself) of sins to God or a priest, in order to receive absolution.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, 1 John 1:9:

     If we confesse our sinnes, hee is faithfull, & iust to forgiue vs our sinnes, and to cleanse vs from all vnrighteousnesse.

   • 1710 September 18 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “THURSDAY, September 7, 1710”, in The Spectator, number 1647; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, , volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:

     Our beautiful votary took an opportunity of confessing herself to this celebrated father.

     The spelling has been modernized.

5. (religion) 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.

   • 1867, W. K. Kelly, The Decameron: or ten day's entertainment of Boccaccio. A revised translation‎:

     A jealous man confesses his wife under a priest's habit, who tells him that she is visited every night by a friar; […]

7. (transitive) To disclose or reveal.
   • 1725, Homer, “Book VII”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. , volume II, London: Bernard Lintot, →OCLC:

     Tall thriving trees confess;d the fruitful mould.

Derived terms

Related terms

• confession
• confessional
• confessor

Translations

See also

• own up
• come clean