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.
And there confess
Humbly our faults, and pardon beg.
Milton.
I must confess I was most pleased with a
beautiful prospect that none of them have mentioned.
Addison.
2. 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.
Matt. x. 32.
For the Sadducees say that there is no
resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees
confess both.
Acts xxiii. 8.
3. To admit as true; to assent to; to
acknowledge, as after a previous doubt, denial, or
concealment.
I never gave it him. Send for him hither,
And let him confess a truth.
Shak.
As I confess it needs must be.
Tennyson.
As an actor confessed without rival to
shine.
Goldsmith.
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.
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.
He . . . heard mass, and the prince, his son, with
him, and the most part of his company were confessed.
Ld. Berners.
5. To disclose or reveal, as an effect
discloses its cause; to prove; to attest.
Tall thriving trees confessed the fruitful
mold.
Pope.
Syn. -- Admit; grant; concede; avow; own; assent;
recognize; prove; exhibit; attest. -- 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.
Con*fess", v. i. 1.
To make confession; to disclose sins or faults, or the state
of the conscience.
Every tongue shall confess to God.
Rom. xiv. 11.
2. To acknowledge; to admit; to
concede.
But since
(And I confess with right) you think me bound.
Tennyson.
