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. |
CONFIRM.
Synonyms:
| assure, | fix, | sanction, | substantiate, |
| corroborate, | prove, | settle, | sustain, |
| establish, | ratify, | strengthen, | uphold. |
Confirm (L. con, together, and firmus, firm) is to add firmness or give stability to. Both confirm and corroborate presuppose something already existing to which the confirmation or corroboration is added. Testimony is corroborated by concurrent testimony or by circumstances; confirmed by established facts. That which is thoroughly proved is said to be established; so is that which is official and has adequate power behind it; as, the established government; the established church. The continents are fixed. A treaty is ratified; an appointment confirmed. An act is sanctioned by any person or authority that passes upon it[115] approvingly. A statement is substantiated; a report confirmed; a controversy settled; the decision of a lower court sustained by a higher. Just government should be upheld. The beneficent results of Christianity confirm our faith in it as a divine revelation.