PROFESS

profess, pretend

(verb) 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”

profess

(verb) confess one’s faith in, or allegiance to; “The terrorists professed allegiance to their country”; “he professes to be a Communist”

concede, profess, confess

(verb) admit (to a wrongdoing); “She confessed that she had taken the money”

profess

(verb) practice as a profession, teach, or claim to be knowledgeable about; “She professes organic chemistry”

profess

(verb) take vows, as in religious order; “she professed herself as a nun”

profess

(verb) receive into a religious order or congregation

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology

Verb

profess (third-person singular simple present professes, present participle professing, simple past and past participle professed)

(transitive) To administer the vows of a religious order to (someone); to admit to a religious order. (Chiefly in passive.) [from 14th c.]

(reflexive) To declare oneself (to be something). [from 16th c.]

(ambitransitive) To declare; to assert, affirm. [from 16th c.]

(transitive) To make a claim (to be something); to lay claim to (a given quality, feeling etc.), often with connotations of insincerity. [from 16th c.]

(transitive) To declare one's adherence to (a religion, deity, principle etc.). [from 16th c.]

(transitive) To work as a professor of; to teach. [from 16th c.]

(transitive, now rare) To claim to have knowledge or understanding of (a given area of interest, subject matter). [from 16th c.]

Source: Wiktionary

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Pro*fess", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Professed; p. pr. & vb. n. Professing.] Etym: [F. profès, 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.

Pro*fess", v. i.

1. To take a profession upon one's self by a public declaration; to confess. Drayton.

2. To declare friendship. [Obs.] Shak.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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