Synonyms for confess
- acknowledge
- assert
- blurt out
- concede
- confide
- declare
- disclose
- divulge
- profess
- prove
- recognize
- relate
- reveal
- affirm
- allow
- attest
- aver
- avow
- blow
- chirp
- evince
- finger
- fink
- grant
- leak
- manifest
- narrate
- own
- post
- sing
- snitch
- squeal
- unload
- vent
- clue in
- come clean
- come out
- dump on
- humble oneself
- let on
- level with
- make clean breast of
- open one's heart
- own up
- rat on
- sound off
- spill the beans
- spit out
- tip hand
- weasel
Antonyms for confess
- conceal
- contradict
- deny
- disavow
- hide
- keep
- refuse
- reject
- repudiate
- secrete
- suppress
- condemn
- veto
- withhold
- disown
- mask
EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR CONFESS
I confess, Eudora, it pained me to see you listen to his idle flattery.
How is it possible for me to confess, when I tell you I know nothing about her?
To confess the strange truth, he never told me you were musical.
Out of your bed and down on your knees to your own blessed father, and confess your sins.
It is not easy for an Anglo-Saxon to confess the realities of affection in vital intimacies.
I am willing to confess that my poor black Dirk was a bit of a genius.
I confess that there was something eerie in the isolation and remoteness of St. nimie.
A teacher should have no favorites, but I must confess to a strong liking for your son.
Mortimer was forced to confess that he didn't quite remember Juggler.
See, now; I give you five minutes by my watch in which to confess your wrong-doing.
WORD ORIGIN
late 14c., from Old French confesser (transitive and intransitive), from Vulgar Latin *confessare, from Latin confess-, past participle stem of confiteri "to acknowledge," from com- "together" (see com-) + fateri "to admit," akin to fari "speak" (see fame (n.)).
Its original religious sense was of one who avows his religion in spite of persecution or danger but does not suffer martyrdom. Old French confesser thus had a figurative sense of "to harm, hurt, make suffer." Related: Confessed; confessing. An Old English word for it was andettan.