profess

== English == === Etymology === From Old French professer, and its source, the participle stem of Latin profitērī, from pro- + fatērī (“to confess, acknowledge”). === Pronunciation === (UK) IPA(key): /pɹəˈfɛs/ Rhymes: -ɛs === Verb === profess (third-person singular simple present professes, present participle professing, simple past and past participle professed) (transitive, chiefly passive voice) To administer the vows of a religious order to (someone); to admit to a religious order. [from 14th c.] (reflexive) To declare oneself (to be something). [from 16th c.] (ambitransitive) To declare; to assert, affirm. [from 16th c.] (transitive) To make a claim (to be something); to lay claim to (a given quality, feeling etc.), often with connotations of insincerity. [from 16th c.] (transitive) To declare one's adherence to (a religion, deity, principle etc.). [from 16th c.] (transitive) To work as a professor of; to teach. [from 16th c.] (transitive, now rare) To claim to have knowledge or understanding of (a given area of interest, subject matter). [from 16th c.] ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Related terms ==== profession professor ==== Translations ==== === Further reading === “profess”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC. William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “profess”, in The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.