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Definition of profess - 5 dictionary results

pro⋅fess

  [pruh-fes]
Use profess in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to lay claim to, often insincerely; pretend to: He professed extreme regret.
2. to declare openly; announce or affirm; avow or acknowledge: to profess one's satisfaction.
3. to affirm faith in or allegiance to (a religion, God, etc.).
4. to declare oneself skilled or expert in; claim to have knowledge of; make (a thing) one's profession or business.
5. to teach as a professor: She professes comparative literature.
6. to receive or admit into a religious order.
–verb (used without object)
7. to make a profession, avowal, or declaration.
8. to take the vows of a religious order.
Origin:
1400–50; late ME; back formation from professed

Synonyms:
1. claim, allege, purport, avow.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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pro·fess   (prə-fěs', prō-)   
v.   pro·fessed, pro·fess·ing, pro·fess·es

v.   tr.
  1. To affirm openly; declare or claim: "a physics major [who] professes to be a stickler when it comes to data" (Gina Maranto).
  2. To make a pretense of; pretend: "top officials who were deeply involved with the arms sales but later professed ignorance of them" (David Johnston).
    1. To practice as a profession or claim knowledge of: profess medicine.
    2. To teach (a subject) as a professor: profess literature.
  4. To affirm belief in: profess Catholicism.
  5. To receive into a religious order or congregation.
v.   intr.
  1. To make an open affirmation.
  2. To take the vows of a religious order or congregation.

[Middle English professen, to take vows, from Old French profes, that has taken a religious vow (from Medieval Latin professus, avowed) and from Medieval Latin professāre, to administer a vow, both from Latin professus, past participle of profitērī, to affirm openly : pro-, forth; see pro-1 + fatērī, to acknowledge; see bhā-2 in Indo-European roots.]
pro·fess'ed·ly (-fěs'ĭd-lē) adv.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Profess

Pro*fess"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Professed; p. pr. & vb. n. Professing.] [F. prof[`e]s, 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.

Profess

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.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : profess
Spanish: profesar,
German: öffentlich erklären,
Japanese: はっきりと言う
More Translations »

profess 
c.1315, "to take a vow" (in a religious order), from O.Fr. profes, from L. professus "having declared publicly," pp. of profitieri "declare openly," from pro- "forth" + fateri (pp. fassus) "acknowledge, confess." Meaning "declare openly" first recorded 1526. Professed "openly declared" is from 1569.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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