fess up

• 'fess up (with preceding apostrophe)

Clipping of confess up.

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fess up (third-person singular simple present fesses up, present participle fessing up, simple past and past participle fessed up)

1. (intransitive, colloquial) To confess to something; to admit something.

   Synonym: own up

   • 1918, Rex Ellingwood Beach, chapter 26, in The Winds of Chance‎:

     "‛Fess up," she persisted. "Have you boys been quarreling again?"

   • 2008 December 18, Barack Obama, President-elect press conference:

     And you know, one of the things that I hope is that the American people will find when we make a mistake, we're willing to 'fess up to it and change.

   • 2009 February 26, Roy Furchgott, “You’ve Sold Your Stocks. Now What?”, in New York Times‎:

     “I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was happening in the financial industry, and I came to the conclusion that people weren’t fessing up,” he said.