confide, v.
(kənˈfaɪd)
[ad. L. confīdĕre to have full trust or reliance, f. con- intensive prefix + fīdĕre to trust.]
1. intr. To trust or have faith; to put or place trust, repose confidence in (formerly on, to).
| a 1455 Houlate lviii, In the we confide. 1634 W. Tirwhyt tr. Balzac's Lett. 104 In a time when the most credulous have enough to doe to confide on publique faith. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. iv. (1843) 150/1 They desired that there might be such a person made Lieutenant of the Tower, ‘as they could confide in’, (an expression that grew from that time to be much used). Ibid. 155/2 The expression they used, when they had a mind to remove any man from a place..‘that they could not confide in him’. 1648 H. G. tr. Balzac's Prince 256 [They] confide more in this..then to the number of their Armies. 1657 Hobbes Govt. & Soc. vi. §12. 82 Some other whom they confide in for protection. 1700 S. Parker Six Philos. Ess. 64 It were not safe with Epicurus to confide wholly on the Senses. 1748 Anson's Voy. iii. ii. 315 The stoutest cables are not to be confided in. 1832 H. Martineau Life in Wilds viii. 101 He confided in the captains' parting promise. 1858 J. Martineau Studies Chr. 184 He who most confides in the instructor will learn the sacred lesson best. |
2. absol. To have faith or trust; to have confidence; to be assured or confident.
| 1654 Earl of Monmouth tr. Bentivoglio's Warrs Flanders 114 Nor could the Flemish ever confide, till they saw their Country free of Foreigners. 1725 Pope Odyss. xvi. 453 O prudent Princess! bid thy soul confide. 1742 Young Nt. Th. ii. 570 Judge before Friendship, then confide till Death. |
3. with obj. clause: To trust, believe, have confidence, or feel assured (that). ? Obs.
| 1632 Sir T. Hawkins tr. Matthieu's Vnhappy Prosper. 27 Confiding the Iudge would be his Protector. 1743 Shenstone Wks. III. 100, I sincerely confide, that..no time shall extenuate our mutual friendship. 1788 V. Knox Winter Even. II. vi. xi. 290 The sum which I have left, will, I confide..supply a decent competency. 1800 T. Jefferson Writ. (1859) IV. 324 They confide that the next election gives a decided majority in the two Houses. 1816 Scott Old Mort. xxx, Confiding that it would have the support of Langcale. |
4. a. trans. To impart as a secret, to communicate in confidence (to a person).
| 1735 G. Lyttelton Pers. Lett. lxxix. (1744) 322 Thou art the only one to whom I dare confide my Folly. 1847 Emerson Repr. Men, Montaigne Wks. (Bohn) I. 341 Men do not confide themselves to boys, or coxcombs, or pedants, but to their peers. 1872 Black Adv. Phaeton xvii. 238 An opportunity of confiding all her perplexities to her friend. |
b. intr. to confide in: to take (a person) into one's confidence, talk confidentially to.
| 1888 Mrs. H. Ward R. Elsmere i, Mrs. Leyburn wanted to confide in her about a new cap. 1904 L. T. Meade Love Triumphant ii. ix, I must confide in you, but you seem..so terribly restless that you have not patience to hear me out. |
5. To entrust (an object of care, a task, etc.) to a person, with reliance on his fidelity or competence.
| 1861 Buckle Civiliz. (1873) II. viii. 546 The execution of the plan was confided to Aranda. 1862 Ruskin Munera P. (1880) 37 Its amount may be known by examination of the persons to whom it is confided. |