Confess.
Synonyms:
| accept, | allow, | concede, | grant, |
| acknowledge, | avow, | disclose, | own, |
| admit, | certify, | endorse, | recognize. |
We accept another's statement; admit any point made against us; acknowledge what we have said or done, good or bad; avow our individual beliefs or feelings; certify to facts within our knowledge; confess our own faults; endorse a friend's note or statement; grant a request; own our faults or obligations; recognize lawful authority; concede a claim. Confess has a high and sacred use in the religious sense; as, to confess Christ before men. It may have also a playful sense (often with to); as, one confesses to a weakness for confectionery. The chief present use of the word, however, is in the sense of making known to others one's own wrong-doing; in this sense confess is stronger than acknowledge or admit, and more specific than own; a person admits a mistake; acknowledges a fault; confesses sin or crime. Compare APOLOGY; AVOW.
Antonyms:
| cloak, | deny, | disown, | hide, | screen, |
| conceal, | disavow, | dissemble, | mask, | secrete, |
| cover, | disguise, | dissimulate, | repudiate, | veil. |