owned (up)

past tense of own (up)
as in confessed
to make an acknowledgment of something unpleasant as true or valid had a strong suspicion about which coworker stole her food from the office fridge, but the likely culprit refused to own up

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for owned (up)
Verb
  • Mansfield eventually confessed to Barrett's abduction and murder after roughly two years of interviews with investigators.
    Greg Wehner, FOXNews.com, 24 June 2026
  • Hernandez confessed to the crime, a confession his defense team argued was false and borne from mental illness.
    Maureen Groppe, USA Today, 22 June 2026
Verb
  • But Crosby also admitted that bookies continue to prosper in Alabama.
    Keith O’Brien, New Yorker, 25 June 2026
  • Yale accepted only 4% of more than 50,000 applicants for the class of 2030, and while Harvard has declined to release the newest admissions statistics until October, just 4% of nearly 48,000 hopefuls were admitted for the class of 2029.
    Lisa Chambers, Forbes.com, 25 June 2026
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Owned (up).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/owned%20%28up%29. Accessed 29 Jun. 2026.

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