confidential
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Latin confidentia + -al.
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
confidential (comparative more confidential, superlative most confidential)
- Kept, or meant to be kept, secret within a certain circle of persons; not intended to be known publicly
- Synonyms: private, classified, off the record, privileged, secret, dern (obsolete)
- Antonyms: public, on the record
- The newspaper claims a leaked confidential report by the government admits to problems with corrupt MPs.
- 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch[1], Edinburgh: William Blackwood, Book 6, Chapter 61, p. 355:
- […] I have a communication of a very private—indeed, I will say, of a sacredly confidential nature, which I desire to make to you.
- 1960, Muriel Spark, chapter 10, in The Bachelors[2], Philadelphia: Lippincott, published 1961, page 163:
- It would tell against your reputation, losing a confidential document, wouldn’t it? Why didn’t you keep it confidential if it was confidential?
- (dated) Inclined to share confidences; (of things) making people inclined to share confidences; involving the sharing of confidences.
- Sitting in front of the fire, they became quite confidential, and began to gossip.
- 1814 July, [Jane Austen], chapter XVI, in Mansfield Park: […], volume III, London: […] T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 310:
- Long, long would it be ere Miss Crawford’s name passed his lips again, or she could hope for a renewal of such confidential intercourse as had been.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 11, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 60:
- I was only alive to the condensed confidential comfortableness of sharing a pipe and a blanket with a real friend.
- 1905, Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth[3], New York: Scribner, Book 2, Chapter 2, p. 329:
- She and Bertha had never been on confidential terms, but at such a crisis the barriers of reserve must surely fall:
- 1923, Arnold Bennett, Riceyman Steps[4], London: Cassell, Part 5, Chapter 2, p. 241:
- Miss Raste was encouraged to be entirely confidential, to withhold nothing even about herself, by the confidence-inspiring and kindly aspect of Elsie’s face.
- (dated) Having someone's confidence or trust; having a position requiring trust; worthy of being trusted with confidences.
- a confidential agent; a confidential servant; a confidential whisper
- 1819, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 168:
- Now, they want me to send up a confidential person with some writings.
- 1848, Anne Brontë, chapter 18, in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall[5], volume 1, London: T.C. Newby, pages 320–321:
- This paper will serve instead of a confidential friend into whose ear I might pour forth the overflowings of my heart.
- 1859, Charles Dickens, chapter 3, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book I (Recalled to Life), page 11:
- […] perhaps the confidential bachelor clerks in Tellson’s Bank were principally occupied with the cares of other people;
- 1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not ...[6], London: Duckworth, Part 2, Chapter 2, p. 245:
- I repeated the instruction by letter and I kept a copy of the letter witnessed by my confidential maid.
- 1959, Kurt Vonnegut, chapter 6, in The Sirens of Titan[7], New York: Dial, published 2006, page 155:
- “He said he was a confidential messenger,” shouted a man.
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
meant to be kept secret within a certain circle
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Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *bʰeydʰ-
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms suffixed with -al
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English dated terms