fess up

See also: 'fess up

English

Alternative forms

• 'fess up (with preceding apostrophe)

Etymology

Clipping of confess up.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

fess up (third-person singular simple present fesses up, present participle fessing up, simple past and past participle fessed up)

1. (intransitive, colloquial) To confess to something; to admit something.

   Synonym: own up

   • 1918, Rex Ellingwood Beach, chapter 26, in The Winds of Chance‎^[1]:

     "‛Fess up," she persisted. "Have you boys been quarreling again?"

   • 2008 December 18, Barack Obama, President-elect press conference:

     And you know, one of the things that I hope is that the American people will find when we make a mistake, we're willing to 'fess up to it and change.

   • 2009 February 26, Roy Furchgott, “You’ve Sold Your Stocks. Now What?”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     “I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was happening in the financial industry, and I came to the conclusion that people weren’t fessing up,” he said.

Translations

confess — see confess