made a clean breast
made a clean breast is the simple past and past participle of make a clean breast.
Meaning of make a clean breast
Verb
make a clean breast (third-person singular simple present makes a clean breast, present participle making a clean breast, simple past and past participle made a clean breast)
- Often followed by of: to be honest about something; to confess.
- He preſſed him earneſtly to make a clean breaſt, and tell him all he knew of [Colin Roy Campbell of] Glenure's murder. To which Breck [i.e., Alan Breck Stewart] anſwered with an oath, that he had never ſeen Glenure dead or alive.1753 October, “Extracts from the Trial of James Stewart, […]”, in The Scots Magazine. […], volume XV, Edinburgh: Printed by W. Sands, A. Murray, and J. Cochran, →OCLC, page 508
- Synonyms:
- acknowledge, admit, assent, avow, beknow, come clean, concede, confess, fess, fess up
Questions about made a clean breast
- What is made a clean breast the simple past and past participle of?
- Made a clean breast is the simple past and past participle of make a clean breast.
Words near made a clean breast in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: made a clean breast (page history and authors); make a clean breast (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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