From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Profess \Pro*fess"\ (pr[-o]*f[e^]s"), verb (used without an object)
1. To take a profession upon one's self by a public declaration; to confess. --Drayton.
2. To declare friendship. [Obs.] --Shak.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Profess \Pro*fess"\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Professed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Professing}.] [F. prof['e]s, masc., professe, fem., professed (monk or nun), L. professus, p. p. of profiteri to profess; pro before, forward + fateri to confess, own. See {Confess}.]
1. To make open declaration of, as of one's knowledge, belief, action, etc.; to avow or acknowledge; to confess publicly; to own or admit freely. ''Hear me profess sincerely.'' --Shak.
The best and wisest of them all professed To know this only, that he nothing knew. --Milton.
2. To set up a claim to; to make presence to; hence, to put on or present an appearance of.
I do profess to be no less than I seem. --Shak.
3. To present to knowledge of, to proclaim one's self versed in; to make one's self a teacher or practitioner of, to set up as an authority respecting; to declare (one's self to be such); as, he professes surgery; to profess one's self a physician.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
verb
1: practice as a profession, teach, or claim to be knowledgeable about; "She professes organic chemistry"
2: confess one's faith in, or allegiance to; "The terrorists professed allegiance to the Muslim faith"; "he professes to be a Communist"
3: admit, make a clean breast of; "She confessed that she had taken the money" [syn: {concede}, {confess}]
4: state freely; "The teacher professed that he was not generous when it came to giving good grades"
5: receive into a religious order or congregation
6: take vows, as in religious order; "she professed herself as a nun"
7: state insincerely; "He professed innocence but later admitted his guilt"; "She pretended not to have known the suicide bomber"; "She pretends to be an expert on wine" [syn: {pretend}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
82 Moby Thesaurus words for "profess": act, act a part, affect, affirm, allege, announce, annunciate, argue, assert, assever, asseverate, assume, aver, avouch, avow, bluff, claim, confess, confirm, contend, counterfeit, cover up, declare, depose, dissemble, dissimulate, enunciate, express, express the belief, fake, feign, four-flush, gammon, have, hold, insist, issue a manifesto, lay down, let on, let on like, maintain, make a pretense, make as if, make believe, make like, manifesto, offer, play, play a part, play possum, playact, predicate, present, pretend, pretext, proclaim, proffer, pronounce, protest, protest too much, purport, put, put forward, put it, put on, say, set down, set forth, sham, simulate, speak, speak out, speak up, stand for, stand on, state, submit, swear, tender, utter, vow, warrant
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