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confess
verb [I or T] /kənˈfes/Definition
B2 to admit that you have done something wrong or something that you feel guilty or bad about: [+ that] She confessed to her husband that she had sold her wedding ring. He confessed to sleeping/having slept through most of the film. He has confessed to the murder. [+ (that)] I have to confess (that) when I first met Ian I didn't think he was very bright. I found it all very confusing, I must confess.Admitting and confessing › in the Christian religion, especially the Roman Catholic Church, to tell God or a priest what you have done wrong so that you can be forgiven: to confess your sinsForgiveness in religionReligious practices
(Definition of confess verb from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus
© Cambridge University Press)
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- Announcing, informing & stating
- Answering & responding
- Assertions & asserting
- Codes & decoding
- Communicating & keeping in touch
- Debate & discussion
- Defining & explaining
- Describing & telling stories
- Exaggerating & playing down
- Gestures & gesturing
- Giving advice
- Giving orders & commands
- Informal talking & conversation
- Insults & abuse
- Interrupting & preventing from speaking
- Inviting & summoning
- Lecturing & addressing
- Making & accepting apologies
- Making & breaking promises & commitments
- Making appeals & requests
- Meaning & significance
- Meeting people
- Official meetings
- People who reveal secrets & tell tales
- Questioning people & asking questions in general
- Quoting & making references
- Remarks & remarking
- Revealing secrets & becoming known
- Saying & uttering
- Saying again
- Speakers & talkers
- Stressing & emphasizing
- Suggestions & proposals
- Suspecting & questioning
- Threats & warnings
- Topics & areas of interest
- Welcoming, greeting & greetings
- Written greetings
- Yes, no & not
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SMART Thesaurus: Admitting & confessing
Synonyms and related words:
- acknowledge verb
- acknowledgment noun
- admittedly adverb
- avow verb
- back down phrasal verb
- climb down phrasal verb
- climbdown noun
- come clean idiom
- concessionary adjective
- confession noun
- deny verb (NOT TRUE)
- eat humble pie idiom
- eat your words idiom
- I stand corrected idiom
- make a clean breast of it idiom
- own up phrasal verb
- own verb (ADMIT)
- retract verb
- self-confessed adjective
- take sth back phrasal verb (STATEMENT)
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