confess

verb

1. (intransitive, transitive)To admit to the truth, particularly in the context of sins or crimes committed.

   “I confess to spray-painting all over that mural!”

   “I confess that I am a sinner.”

   “I never gave it him. Send for him hither, / And let him confess a truth.”

   “And there confess / Humbly our faults, and pardon beg.”

   “I must confess I was most pleased with a beautiful prospect that none of them have mentioned.”

2. (transitive)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.”

   “For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both.”

3. To unburden (oneself) of sins to God or a priest, in order to receive absolution.

   “If we confesse our sinnes, hee is faithfull, & iust to forgiue vs our sinnes, and to cleanse vs from all vnrighteousnesse.”

   “Our beautiful votary took an opportunity of confessing herself to this celebrated father.”

4. (transitive)To hear or receive such a confession of sins from.

   “1523–1525, John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners (translator), Froissart's Chronicles He […] heard mass, and the prince, his son, with him, and the most part of his company were confessed.”

   “A jealous man confesses his wife under a priest's habit, who tells him that she is visited every night by a friar; […]”

5. (transitive)To disclose or reveal.

   “Tall thriving trees confess;d the fruitful mould.”

6. (intransitive)To profess one's love.