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Confess vs Confer - What's the difference?

confess | confer |

As verbs the difference between confess and confer

is that confess is (senseid) to admit to the truth, particularly in the context of sins or crimes committed while confer is (obsolete|intransitive) to compare.

confess

English

Verb

(es)
  • (senseid) To admit to the truth, particularly in the context of sins or crimes committed.
    • People confess to anything under torture.
  • * Shakespeare
    • I never gave it him. Send for him hither, / And let him confess a truth.
  • * Milton
    • And there confess / Humbly our faults, and pardon beg.
  • * Addison
    • I must confess I was most pleased with a beautiful prospect that none of them have mentioned.
  • To acknowledge faith in; to profess belief in.
  • * Bible, Matthew x. 32
    • Whosoever, therefore, shall confess' me before men, him will I ' confess , also, before my Father which is in heaven.
  • * Bible, Acts xxiii. 8
    • For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both.
  • (religion) To unburden (oneself) of sins to a priest, in order to receive absolution.
  • * Addison
    • Our beautiful votary took an opportunity of confessing herself to this celebrated father.
  • (religion) To hear or receive such a confession of sins from.
  • * Ld. Berners
    • He heard mass, and the prince, his son, with him, and the most part of his company were confessed .
  • (senseid) To disclose or reveal.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • Tall thriving trees confessed the fruitful mould.

    Related terms

    * (l) * (l) * (l)

    Derived terms

    * (l), (l)

    See also

    * own up * come clean

    confer

    English

    Verb

    (conferr)
  • (obsolete) To compare.
  • * 1557 (book title):
    • The Newe Testament ... Conferred diligently with the Greke, and best approued translations.
  • *, II.3.1.i:
    • Confer thine estate with others […]. Be content and rest satisfied, for thou art well in respect to others […].
  • * Boyle
    • If we confer these observations with others of the like nature, we may find cause to rectify the general opinion.
  • To talk together, to consult, discuss; to deliberate.
  • * 1974 , "A Traveler's Perils", Time , 25 Mar 1974:
    • Local buttons popped when Henry Kissinger visited Little Rock last month to confer with Fulbright on the Middle East oil talks.
  • (obsolete) To bring together; to collect, gather.
  • To grant as a possession; to bestow.
  • * Milton
    • the public marks of honour and reward conferred upon me
  • * 2010 , Andrew Rawnsley, The Observer , 7 Feb 2010:
    • The special immunities that are conferred on MPs were framed with the essential purpose of allowing them to speak freely in parliament.
  • (obsolete) To contribute; to conduce.
  • * Glanvill
    • The closeness and compactness of the parts resting together doth much confer to the strength of the union.

    Related terms

    * conference

    See also

    * cf ----