confessor
NounOpen English WordNet
Noun (2)
- a priest who hears confession and gives absolutionType of priest
- someone who confesses (discloses information damaging to themselves)Type of communicator
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onerousadjective
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Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Con·fess′or (?; 277), noun
Origin: OF. confessor, F. confesseur, fr. L. & LL. confessor.
1. One who confesses; one who acknowledges a fault, or the truth of a charge, at the risk of suffering; specifically, one who confesses himself a follower of Christ and endures persecution for his faith.
He who dies for religion is a martyr; he who suffers for it is a confessor.— Robert Gordon Latham
Our religion which hath been sealed with the blood of so many martyrs and confessors.— Francis, Baron Verulam Bacon
2. A priest who hears the confessions of others and is authorized to grant them absolution.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54