Verb

(es)

To administer the vows of a religious order to (someone); to admit to a religious order. (Chiefly in passive.)

* 2000 , Butler's Lives of the Saints , p.118:

This swayed the balance decisively in Mary's favour, and she was professed on 8 September 1578.

(reflexive) To declare oneself (to be something).

* 2011 , Alex Needham, The Guardian , 9 Dec.:

Kiefer professes himself amused by the fuss that ensued when he announced that he was buying the Mülheim-Kärlich reactor.

(ambitransitive) To declare; to assert, affirm.

* c. 1604 , (William Shakespeare), Measure for Measure , First Folio 1623:

He professes to haue receiued no sinister measure from his Iudge, but most willingly humbles himselfe to the determination of Iustice.

* Milton

The best and wisest of them all professed / To know this only, that he nothing knew.

* 1974 , ‘The Kansas Kickbacks’, Time , 11 Feb 1974:

The Governor immediately professed that he knew nothing about the incident.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Gary Younge)

, volume=188, issue=26, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution , passage=WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected,

To make a claim (to be something), to lay claim to (a given quality, feeling etc.), often with connotations of insincerity.

* 2010 , Hélène Mulholland, The Guardian , 28 Sep 2010:

Ed Miliband professed ignorance of the comment when he was approached by the BBC later.

To declare one's adherence to (a religion, deity, principle etc.).

* 1983 , Alexander Mcleish, The Frontier Peoples of India , Mittal Publications 1984, p.122:

The remainder of the population, about two-thirds, belongs to the Mongolian race and professes Buddhism.

To work as a professor of; to teach.

*, II.12:

*:he was a Spaniard, who about two hundred yeeres since professed Physicke in Tholouse .

Verb

(persuad)

To successfully convince (someone) to agree to, accept, or do something, usually through reasoning and verbal influence. Compare sway.

That salesman was able to persuade me into buying this bottle of lotion.

* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

We will persuade him, be it possible.

*

The boy became volubly friendly and bubbling over with unexpected humour and high spirits. He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance. Nobody would miss them, he explained.

* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=November 10, author=Jeremy Wilson, work=Telegraph

, title= England Under 21 5 Iceland Under 21 0: match report , passage=The most persistent tormentor was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who scored a hat-trick in last month’s corresponding fixture in Iceland. His ability to run at defences is instantly striking, but it is his clever use of possession that has persuaded some shrewd judges that he is an even better prospect than Theo Walcott.}}

To urge, plead; to try to convince (someone to do something).

* (Bible), 2 (w) xviii. 32

Hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you.

* 1834 , (w), A Narrative of the Life of , Nebraska 1987, p. 34:

He persuaded me to go home, but I refused.

(obsolete) To convince of by argument, or by reasons offered or suggested from reflection, etc.; to cause to believe.

* (Bible), (w) vi. 9

Beloved, we are persuaded better things of you.