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Confess vs Propose - What's the difference?

confess | propose |

As verbs the difference between confess and propose

is that confess is (to admit to the truth) To admit to the truth, particularly in the context of sins or crimes committed while propose is to suggest a plan, course of action, etc.

As a noun propose is

an objective or aim.

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

    propose

    English

    Verb

    (propos)
  • To suggest a plan, course of action, etc.
  • To ask for a person's hand in marriage.
  • To intend.
  • * 1859 , (John Gorham Palfrey), History of New England , Preface (Google preview):
    • I propose to relate, in several volumes, the history of the people of New England.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-16, author= John Vidal
    • , volume=189, issue=10, page=8, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Dams endanger ecology of Himalayas , passage=Many of the proposed dams would be among the tallest in the world.}}
  • (obsolete) To talk; to converse.
  • * 1599 , (William Shakespeare), (Much Ado About Nothing) , :
    • HERO. Good Margaret, run thee to the parlour;
    There shalt thou find my cousin Beatrice
    Proposing with the prince and Claudio
  • (obsolete) To set forth.
  • * 1616 , (George Chapman) (translator), Homer's Iliad , book 11:
    • . . . so weighty was the cup,
    That being propos'd brimful of wine, one scarce could lift it up.

    Usage notes

    * In use 1. this is sometimes a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) . * In use 3, this is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . * For more information, see * Compared to to suggest'', ''to propose is more deliberate and definite. To suggest is merely to mention, while to propose is to have a definite plan and intention.

    Synonyms

    * (l)

    Derived terms

    * proposal * proposition

    Related terms

    * proponent

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) An objective or aim.
  • *, II.17:
  • *:whose aime hath beene to make us not good and wittie, but wise and learned; She hath attained her propose .

    • Anagrams

    * English reporting verbs ----