unbosom

From un- +‎ bosom (“the seat of emotions”).

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ʌnˈbʊz.əm/, /ˌʌnˈbʊz.əm/

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unbosom (third-person singular simple present unbosoms, present participle unbosoming, simple past and past participle unbosomed)

This entry needs quotations to illustrate usage. If you come across any interesting, durably archived quotes then please add them!

1. (transitive, intransitive, archaic) To tell someone about (one's troubles), and thus obtain relief.
   • 1594, Willam Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, act V, scene 2, line 2040:

     Their several counsels they unbosom shall
     To loves mistook, and so be mock'd withal
     Upon the next occasion that we meet,
     With visages displayed, to talk and greet.

   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:

     At first Puddock was reserved, but recollecting that he had been left quite free to tell whom he pleased, he made up his mind to unbosom; and suggested, for the sake of quiet and a longer conversation, that they should go round by the ferry.

2. (reflexive, archaic) To free (oneself) of the burden of one's troubles by telling of them.
   • 1924, Mark Twain, Mark Twain's Autobiography, New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, Preface, Volume 1:

     Sometimes there is a breach-of-promise case by and by; and when he sees his letter in print it makes him cruelly uncomfortable and he perceives that he never would have unbosomed himself to that large and honest degree if he had known that he was writing for the public.

   • 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, Paris: Olympia Press, →OL:

     Watt was not the first to whom Mr Graves had unbosomed himself, in this connexion. For he had unbosomed himself to Arsene, many years before […]

3. (archaic) To confess a misdeed.

• sub-moon, submoon