1. To declare or disclose (something which one has kept or allowed to remain secret as being prejudicial or inconvenient to oneself); to acknowledge, own, or admit (a crime, charge, fault, weakness, or the like).
2. To acknowledge or formally recognize (a person or thing) as having a certain character or certain claims; to own, avow, declare belief in or adhesion to.
3. In religion, to acknowledge sins orally as a religious duty, with repentance and desire of absolution.
4. To make formal confession of sins; especially, to a priest, in order to receive penance and absolution.