confess

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To disclose (something damaging or inconvenient to oneself); admit. See Synonyms at acknowledge.
2. v. To acknowledge belief or faith in; profess.
3. v. To make known (one's sins) to God or to a priest.
4. v. To hear the confession of (a penitent).
5. v. To admit or acknowledge something damaging or inconvenient to oneself: The suspect confessed to the crime.
6. v. To disclose one's sins to a priest.
7. v. To listen to a confession.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To make avowal or admission of, as of a fault, a crime, a charge, a debt, or something that is against one's interest or reputation; own; acknowledge; avow.
2. Reflexively, to make an admission or an inculpatory statement concerning; acknowledge to be; specifically, acknowledge the sins or moral faults of, as in auricular confession to a priest: as, I confess myself in error or at fault.
3. Eccles., to receive the confession of; act as a confessor to.
4. To acknowledge as having a certain character or certain claims; recognize; own; avow; declare belief in.
5. To grant; admit; concede.
6. To reveal by circumstances; show by effect; disclose; prove; attest.
7. Synonyms Admit, Avow, etc. See acknowledge.
8. To make confession or avowal; disclose or admit a crime, fault, debt, etc.
9. Eccles., to make known one's sins or the state of one's conscience to a priest.

Wiktionary

1. v. To admit to the truth, particularly in the context of sins or crimes committed
2. v. To disclose or reveal

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To make acknowledgment or avowal in a matter pertaining to one's self; to acknowledge, own, or admit, as a crime, a fault, a debt.
2. v. To acknowledge faith in; to profess belief in.
3. v. To admit as true; to assent to; to acknowledge, as after a previous doubt, denial, or concealment.
4. v. To make known or acknowledge, as one's sins to a priest, in order to receive absolution; -- sometimes followed by the reflexive pronoun.
5. v. To hear or receive such confession; -- said of a priest.
6. v. To disclose or reveal, as an effect discloses its cause; to prove; to attest.
7. v. To make confession; to disclose sins or faults, or the state of the conscience.
8. v. To acknowledge; to admit; to concede.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. confess to God in the presence of a priest, as in the Catholic faith
2. v. confess to a punishable or reprehensible deed, usually under pressure
3. v. admit (to a wrongdoing)