1
as in admitting
to accept the truth or existence of (something) usually reluctantly
he fessed up to breaking the antique vase only after his guilt was obvious
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in confessing
to make an acknowledgment of something unpleasant as true or valid
at first he denied everything, but eventually he realized that he had no choice but to fess up
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fessing (up)
Verb
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The pair appear to be smitten with each other, with Mel C admitting on Cosmopolitan's Blind Date that the quickest person she's ever fallen for has been Dingwall.—
Gina Kalsi,
PEOPLE,
29 May 2026 -
The company’s Chief Technology Officer, Praveen Neppalli Naga, went viral in April for admitting Uber burned through its 2026 Claude Code budget in four months.—
Rebecca Schneid,
Time,
26 May 2026
Verb
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Globally, data shows young men are comfortable confessing to AI chatbots.—
Ashoka,
Forbes.com,
26 May 2026
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As the league investigation intensified, Southampton admitted to a season-long pattern of espionage, confessing to spying on three different teams since December.—
Alejandro Avila OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
19 May 2026
Verb
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The season is also acknowledging America’s 250th anniversary and celebrating those artists, musicians and composers alike who came from far away and chose to become American citizens and make their creative home here in this country.—
Jim Harrington,
Mercury News,
29 May 2026
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In opting to lease its compute capacity to Anthropic, SpaceX was acknowledging that its own AI models and services haven’t inspired great demand and that the company isn’t in a position to take advantage of its costly infrastructure.—
Lora Kolodny,
CNBC,
29 May 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Fessing (up).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fessing%20%28up%29. Accessed 2 Jun. 2026.
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