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Confess vs Disclose - What's the difference?

confess | disclose |

As verbs the difference between confess and disclose

is that confess is (senseid) to admit to the truth, particularly in the context of sins or crimes committed while disclose is (obsolete) to open up, unfasten.

As a noun disclose is

(obsolete) a disclosure.

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

    disclose

    English

    Verb

    (disclos)
  • (obsolete) To open up, unfasten.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • The ostrich layeth her eggs under sand, where the heat of the discloseth them.
  • To uncover, physically expose to view.
  • * Woodward
    • The shells being broken, the stone included in them is thereby disclosed and set at liberty.
  • * 1972 , Vladimir Nabokov, Transparent Things , McGraw-Hill 1972, p. 13:
    • Its brown curtain was only half drawn, disclosing the elegant legs, clad in transparent black, of a female seated inside.
  • To expose to the knowledge of others; to make known, state openly, reveal.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • Her lively looks a sprightly mind disclose .
  • * Addison
    • If I disclose my passion, / Our friendship's at an end.

    Synonyms

    * divulge * impart * publish * reveal * unveil

    Antonyms

    * cover up

    Derived terms

    * discloser

    Related terms

    * disclosure

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A disclosure