come clean

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

An altercation with a nightclub bouncer in Wellington, a wasteful Ashes performance and a foolish attempt to hide the truth, for which he later had to come clean.

From BBC • Feb. 24, 2026

His decades of painstaking research helped lead to a push in the 1990s for the Air Force to come clean on what it had been doing: testing spy balloons and recovering crash dummies.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 22, 2026

"HMRC is running a disclosure facility where taxpayers can come clean on undeclared gains and unpaid tax prior to April 2024."

From BBC • Jan. 1, 2026

And, well, if I was going to write about others with Parkinson’s disease, I would have to come clean about myself.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 22, 2025

I knew there was no demon, but there was no way I could come clean.

From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah