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Confess vs Frankly - What's the difference?

confess | frankly |

As a verb confess

is (senseid) to admit to the truth, particularly in the context of sins or crimes committed.

As an adverb frankly is

(lb) in a frank, open or (too) honest manner.

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.

    Derived terms

    * (l), (l)

    See also

    * own up * come clean

    frankly

    English

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (lb) In a frank, open or (too) honest manner.
  • :
  • *
  • *:She was frankly disappointed. For some reason she had thought to discover a burglar of one or another accepted type—either a dashing cracksman in full-blown evening dress, lithe, polished, pantherish, or a common yegg, a red-eyed, unshaven burly brute in the rags and tatters of a tramp.
  • (lb) In truth, to tell the truth.
  • :