full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability of a person or thing: We have every confidence in their ability to succeed.
2.
belief in oneself and one's powers or abilities; self-confidence; self-reliance; assurance: His lack of confidence defeated him.
3.
certitude; assurance: He described the situation with such confidence that the audience believed him completely.
4.
a confidential communication: to exchange confidences.
5.
(esp. in European politics) the wish to retain an incumbent government in office, as shown by a vote in a particular issue: a vote of confidence.
6.
presumption; impudence: Her disdainful look crushed the confidence of the brash young man.
7.
Archaic. something that gives confidence; ground of trust.
—Idiom
8.
in confidence, as a secret or private matter, not to be divulged or communicated to others; with belief in a person's sense of discretion: I told him in confidence.
[Origin: 1350–1400; ME (< MF) < L confīdentia.See confide, -ence]
—Synonyms 1. faith, reliance, dependence. See trust.2.Confidence,assurance both imply a faith in oneself. Confidence may imply trust in oneself or arrogant self-conceit. Assurance implies even more sureness of oneself; this may be shown as undisturbed calm or as offensive boastfulness.
A trusting relationship: I took them into my confidence.
That which is confided; a secret: A friend does not betray confidences.
A feeling of assurance that a confidant will keep a secret: I am telling you this in strict confidence.
A feeling of assurance, especially of self-assurance.
The state or quality of being certain: I have every confidence in your ability to succeed.
adj.
Of, relating to, or involving a swindle or fraud: a confidence scheme; a confidence trickster.
Synonyms: These nouns denote a feeling of emotional security resulting from faith in oneself. Confidence is a firm belief in one's powers, abilities, or capacities: "You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face" (Eleanor Roosevelt).
Assurance even more strongly stresses certainty and can suggest arrogance: How can you explain an abstruse theory with such assurance? Aplomb implies calm poise: "It is native personality, and that alone, that endows a man to stand before presidents or generals . . . with aplomb" (Walt Whitman).
Self-confidence stresses trust in one's own self-sufficiency: "The most vital quality a soldier can possess is self-confidence" (George S. Patton).
Self-possession implies composure arising from control over one's own reactions: "In life courtesy and self-possession . . . are the sensible impressions of the free mind, for both arise . . . from never being swept away, whatever the emotion, into confusion or dullness" (William Butler Yeats). See Also Synonyms at trust.
c.1430, from L. confidentia, from confidentem, prp. of confidere, from com- intens. prefix + fidere "to trust" (see faith). For sense of "swindle" see con (3). Confidant, with spelling to reflect Fr. pronunciation, first attested 1714.
freedom from doubt; belief in yourself and your abilities; "his assurance in his superiority did not make him popular"; "after that failure he lost his confidence"; "she spoke with authority" [syn: assurance]
2.
a feeling of trust (in someone or something); "I have confidence in our team"; "confidence is always borrowed, never owned" [ant: diffidence]
3.
a state of confident hopefulness that events will be favorable; "public confidence in the economy"
4.
a trustful relationship; "he took me into his confidence"; "he betrayed their trust"
5.
a secret that is confided or entrusted to another; "everyone trusted him with their confidences"; "the priest could not reveal her confidences"
Af*fi"ance\, n. [OE. afiaunce trust, confidence, OF. afiance, fr. afier to trust, fr. LL. affidare to trust; ad + fidare to trust, fr. L. fides faith. See Faith, and cf. Affidavit, Affy, Confidence.]1. Plighted faith; marriage contract or promise. 2. Trust; reliance; faith; confidence. Such feelings promptly yielded to his habitual affiance in the divine love. --Sir J. Stephen. Lancelot, my Lancelot, thou in whom I have Most joy and most affiance. --Tennyson.
Con"fi*dence\, n. [L. confidentia firm trust in, self-confidence: cf. F. confidence.]1. The act of confiding, trusting, or putting faith in; trust; reliance; belief; -- formerly followed by of, now commonly by in. Society is built upon trust, and trust upon confidence of one another's integrity. --South. A cheerful confidence in the mercy of God. --Macaulay. 2. That in which faith is put or reliance had. The Lord shall be thy confidence. --Prov. iii. 26. 3. The state of mind characterized by one's reliance on himself, or his circumstances; a feeling of self-sufficiency; such assurance as leads to a feeling of security; self-reliance; -- often with self prefixed. Your wisdom is consumed in confidence; Do not go forth to-day. --Shak. But confidence then bore thee on secure Either to meet no danger, or to find Matter of glorious trial. --Milton. 4. Private conversation; (pl.) secrets shared; as, there were confidences between them. Sir, I desire some confidence with you. --Shak. Confidence game, any swindling operation in which advantage is taken of the confidence reposed by the victim in the swindler. Confidence man, a swindler. To take into one's confidence, to admit to a knowledge of one's feelings, purposes, or affairs. Syn: Trust; assurance; expectation; hope. I am confident that very much be done. --Boyle. 2. Trustful; without fear or suspicion; frank; unreserved. Be confident to speak, Northumberland; We three are but thyself. --Shak. 3. Having self-reliance; bold; undaunted. As confident as is the falcon's flight Against a bird, do I with Mowbray fight. --Shak. 4. Having an excess of assurance; bold to a fault; dogmatical; impudent; presumptuous. The fool rageth and is confident. --Prov. xiv. 16. 5. Giving occasion for confidence. [R.] The cause was more confident than the event was prosperious. --Jer. Taylor.
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