own up

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

own up (third-person singular simple present owns up, present participle owning up, simple past and past participle owned up)

1. (intransitive) To acknowledge, confess, or admit guilt or responsibility. [with to]

   Synonyms: fess up, come clean

   I'll own up: I glued your mouse to its mat.

   If you own up to breaking the glass, you'll be forgiven.

   • 2007, Sally Seltmann, Feist, “1234”, in The Reminder‎^[1], performed by Feist:

     Those teenage hopes who have tears in their eyes
     Too scared to own up to one little lie

Translations

to confess

• Finnish: tunnustaa (fi), myöntää (fi)
• French: confesser (fr), admettre (fr), passer aux aveux (fr)
• Galician: admitir (gl), aceptar (gl), recoñecer (gl), confesar, asumir (gl)
• Greek: παραδέχομαι (el) (paradéchomai)
• Mandarin: 承認犯錯 / 承认犯错, 承认犯错 (chéngrèn fàncuò), 認罪 / 认罪 (zh) (rènzuì), 认罪 (zh) (rènzuì)
• Polish: wkładać między bajki impf, włożyć między bajki (pl) pf
• Portuguese: confessar (pt), assumir (pt), confessar que (pt), admitir (pt)
• Romanian: mărturisi (ro)
• Russian: признавать (ru) impf (priznavatʹ), принимать (ru) impf (prinimatʹ)
• Spanish: confesar (es)