confessed

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of confess.

   He finally confessed to the crime after hours of questioning.

   The suspect has confessed to taking the money from the safe.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs. It stands alone in a past-tense clause (she confessed) and follows have or be in perfect and passive ones (has confessed, was confessed). The verb works with or without an object, so he confessed the theft and he confessed to the theft both stand. In the passive it can also mean the priest's side of the exchange: a penitent who was confessed had a confession heard.

2. 2
   adjective

   Openly admitted or acknowledged as true by the person concerned.

   As a confessed romantic, she tears up at nearly every wedding.

   The confessed killer showed no visible remorse throughout the trial.

   Similaravowed, acknowledged, professed, self-professed

   Oppositesecret, alleged, suspected, closet

   Note

   An adjective that can attach to either side of an admission. It can describe the person who owns up (a confessed killer) or the thing owned up to. Grace Aguilar's The Mother's Recompense (1858) shows the second use, where a daughter fears her "confessed distaste" would pain her parents. It takes no degrees, so nobody is more confessed than another. Like avowed, it implies the admission came from the person concerned.

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