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To grant; to acknowledge; to admit to be true; to confess; to recognize in a particular character; as, we own that we have forfeited your love. The wakeful bloodhound rose, and shook his hide owns. Keats.

I have sinned; -- used colloquially to express confession or acknowledgment of an offense. Aubrey.

A priest who heard confession and enjoined penance in extraordinary cases. [Written also penitenser.] [Obs.] Chaucer.

One under the direction of a confessor.

A book formerly used by priests hearing confessions, containing rules for the imposition of penances; -- called also penitential book.

A small building in a monastery where penitents confessed. Shpiley.

vine being as a religious act; specifically, to address the Supreme Being with adoration, confession, supplication, and thanksgiving. And to his goddess pitously he preyde. Chaucer. When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which se…

essing supplication to a divinity, especially to the true God; the offering of adoration, confession, supplication, and thanksgiving to the Supreme Being; as, public prayer; secret prayer. As he is famed for mildness, peace, and prayer. Shak.

A Latin preposition signifying for, before, forth. Pro confesso Etym: [L.] (Law), taken as confessed. The action of a court of equity on that portion of the pleading in a particular case which the pleading on the other side does not deny. -- Pro rata. Etym: [L. See Prorate.] In proportion; proportion. -- Pro re nata…

One who, when indicted for crime, confessed it, and accused others, his accomplices, in order to obtain pardon; a state's evidence.

n declaration of, as of one's knowledge, belief, action, etc.; to avow or acknowledge; to confess publicly; to own or admit freely. "Hear me profess sincerely." Shak. The best and wisest of them all professed To know this only, that he nothing knew. Milton.

g in a humble, lowly, or suppliant posture. Prostrate fall Before him reverent, and there confess Humbly our faults. Milton.

ance; to lose heart; to give way; to shrink; to cower. The atheist power shall quail, and confess his fears. I. Taylor. Stouter hearts than a woman's have quailed in this terrible winter. Longfellow.

d until, sometimes, the joints were dislocated; -- formerly used judicially for extorting confessions from criminals or suspected persons. During the troubles of the fifteenth century, a rack was introduced into the Tower, and was occasionally used under the plea of political necessity. Macaulay.

pt or satire. Honeycomb . . . raillies me upon a country life. Addison. Strephon had long confessed his amorous pain. Which gay Corinna rallied with disdain. Gay.

f recognizing, or the state of being recognized; acknowledgment; formal avowal; knowledge confessed or avowed; notice. The lives of such saints had, at the time of their yearly memorials, solemn recognition in the church of God. Hooker.

To give an account; to make explanation or confession. [Obs.]

continuance of time; as, the residence of an American in France or Italy for a year. The confessor had often made considerable residences in Normandy. Sir M. Hale.

-red, love's proper hue. Milton. While blooming youth and gay delight Sit thy rosy cheeks confessed. Prior.

Confession made to a priest, and the absolution consequent upon it. Chaucer. Have you got leave to go to shrift to-day Shak. Therefore, my lord, address you to your shrift, And be yourself; for you must die this instant. Rowe. Shrift father, a priest to whom confession is made.