Crossword clues for confessing
confessing
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Confess \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.]
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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. -
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. -
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. -
(Eccl.)
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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. -
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.
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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.
Usage: 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.
Wiktionary
n. The act of making a confession. vb. (present participle of confess English)
Usage examples of "confessing".
On which, the mother of my flesh being much troubled,-since she, with a heart pure in Thy faith, travailed in birth 88 more lovingly for my eternal salvation,-would, had I not quickly recovered, have without delay provided for my initiation and washing by Thy life-giving sacraments, confessing Thee, O Lord Jesus, for the remission of sins.
For whosoever, called by Thee, obeyed Thy voice, and shunned those things which he reads me recalling and confessing of myself, let him not despise me, who, being sick, was healed by that same Physician 140 by whose aid it was that he was not sick, or rather was less sick.
For when they were revealed and dug up and with due honour transferred to the Ambrosian Basilica, not only they who were troubled with unclean spirits (the devils confessing themselves) were healed, but a certain man also, who had been blind 684 many years, a well-known citizen of that city, having asked and been told the reason of the people’s tumultuous joy, rushed forth, asking his guide to lead him thither.
After confessing to these things they had been pardoned, reinstated in the Party, and given posts which were in fact sinecures but which sounded important.
There were other times when he started out with the resolve of confessing nothing, when every word had to be forced out of him between gasps of pain, and there were times when he feebly tried to compromise, when he said to himself: 'I will confess, but not yet.
He was confessing everything, even the things he had succeeded in holding back under the torture.
They wore them down by torture and solitude until they were despicable, cringing wretches, confessing whatever was put into their mouths, covering themselves with abuse, accusing and sheltering behind one another, whimpering for mercy.
He was in the public dock, confessing everything, implicating everybody.
After confessing to these things they had been pardoned, reinstated in the Party, and given posts which were in fact sinecures but which sounded important.
There were other times when he started out with the resolve of confessing nothing, when every word had to be forced out of him between gasps of pain, and there were times when he feebly tried to compromise, when he said to himself: 'I will confess, but not yet.
He was confessing everything, even the things he had succeeded in holding back under the torture.
They wore them down by torture and solitude until they were despicable, cringing wretches, confessing whatever was put into their mouths, covering themselves with abuse, accusing and sheltering behind one another, whimpering for mercy.
He was in the public dock, confessing everything, implicating everybody.
He knew he would hear no simple, confessing helplessness in her voice.
When a distinguished society woman asked him to contribute to a worthy charity cause, Wynand handed her a signed blank check--and laughed, confessing that the amount she dared to fill in was less than he would have given otherwise.