Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To support or establish the certainty or validity of; verify.
  • transitive verb To reaffirm the establishment of (a reservation or advance arrangement).
  • transitive verb To make firmer; strengthen.
  • transitive verb To make valid or binding by a formal or legal act; ratify.
  • transitive verb To administer the religious rite of confirmation to.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make firm, or more firm; add strength to; strengthen: as, one's resolution is confirmed by the approval of another.
  • To settle or establish; render fixed or secure.
  • To make certain or sure; give new assurance of truth or certainty to; put past doubt; verify.
  • To certify or give assurance to; inform positively.
  • To sanction; ratify; consummate; make valid or binding by some formal or legal act: as, to confirm an agreement, promise, covenant, or title.
  • To strengthen in resolution, purpose, or opinion; fortify.
  • Eccles., to admit to the full privileges of church-membership by the imposition of hands; administer the rite of confirmation to. See confirmation, 1 .
  • Synonyms Corroborate, substantiate.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To make firm or firmer; to add strength to; to establish.
  • transitive verb To strengthen in judgment or purpose.
  • transitive verb To give new assurance of the truth of; to render certain; to verify; to corroborate.
  • transitive verb To render valid by formal assent; to complete by a necessary sanction; to ratify.
  • transitive verb (Eccl.) To administer the rite of confirmation to. See Confirmation, 3.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To strengthen; to make firm or resolute.
  • verb To confer the Christian sacrament of confirmation.
  • verb To assure the accuracy of previous statements.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb support a person for a position
  • verb administer the rite of confirmation to
  • verb establish or strengthen as with new evidence or facts
  • verb strengthen or make more firm
  • verb make more firm

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English confirmen, from Old French confermer, from Latin cōnfirmāre : com-, intensive pref.; see com– + firmāre, to strengthen (from firmus, strong; see dher- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin confirmare ("to make firm, strenghten, establish"), from com- ("together") with firmare ("to make firm"), from firmus ("firm").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word confirm.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.