confide

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle Scots confide, confyde (“to put trust in”), from Latin confīdere (“to put trust in, have confidence in”),[1] from con- (“together”) + fidēre (“to trust”). First attested in English use in the early 17th century.[1][2] Doublet of faith and fidelity.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /kənˈfaɪd/
    • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪd

Verb[edit]

confide (third-person singular simple present confides, present participle confiding, simple past and past participle confided)

  1. (intransitive, now rare) To trust, have faith (in).
    • 1796, Matthew Lewis, The Monk, Folio Society, published 1985, page 269:
      "Be calm, lovely Antonia!" he replied; "no danger in near you: confide in my protection."
    • 1818, [Mary Shelley], chapter II, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, →OCLC, page 16:
      I shall do nothing rashly: you know me sufficiently to confide in my prudence and consideration whenever the safety of others is committed to my care.
    • 1807, Lord Byron, The Prayer of Nature:
      In thy protection I confide.
  2. (transitive, dated) To entrust (something) to the responsibility of someone.
    I confide this mission to you alone.
  3. (intransitive, with in) To take (someone) into one's confidence, to speak in secret with.
    I could no longer keep this secret alone; I decided to confide in my brother.
  4. (transitive, intransitive) To say (something) in confidence.
    After several drinks, I confided my problems to the barman.
    She confided that her marriage had been in trouble for some time.

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 “confide, v.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
  2. ^ “confide”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN.

Further reading[edit]

Latin[edit]

Verb[edit]

cōnfīde

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of cōnfīdō
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=confide&oldid=76629343"