confide

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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.
    • 1977 December 10, Mark N. Silber, “Gays On Campus — One Story”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 23, page 15:
      One student had been so afraid to come out to our meetings that he would secretly meet me in the bookshelves of the library and confide about the miseries of being gay, closeted, and a a virgin.
    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
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