Word.ws English Dictionary

make a clean breast

UK/ˈmeɪk ə ˈkliːn bɹɛst/US/ˈmeɪk ə ˈklin bɹɛst/

make a clean breast verb: often followed by of: to be honest about something; to confess.

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)

  1. (idiomatic) 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
    • "Master," he said that day to me, "this must come to an end. I must make a clean breast of it. This Nemo is leaving land and going up to the north. But I declare to you that I have had enough of the South Pole, and I will not follow him to the North."1873, Jules Verne, “The Gulf Stream”, in [anonymous], transl., Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas; […], James R. Osgood edition, Boston, Mass.: Geo[rge] M[urray] Smith & Co., →OCLC, part II, page...

Synonyms of make a clean breast

11 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of make a clean breast

third-person singular presentmakes a clean breast
present participlemaking a clean breast
past participlemade a clean breast
pastmade a clean breast

Origin of make a clean breast

From the notion that secrets are figuratively hidden in the heart which is contained in the breast (“chest”), and that admitting them will cause the heart to become clean and pure.

Questions about make a clean breast

What does make a clean breast mean?
Make a clean breast means often followed by of: to be honest about something; to confess.
What part of speech is make a clean breast?
Make a clean breast is a verb.
How do you pronounce make a clean breast?
Make a clean breast is pronounced /ˈmeɪk ə ˈkliːn bɹɛst/ (UK).
What is the past tense of make a clean breast?
The past tense of make a clean breast is made a clean breast.

Words near make a clean breast in the dictionary

  1. make a career of
  2. make a career out of
  3. make a case
  4. make a case for
  5. make a cat laugh
  6. make a clean breast
  7. make a dash for it
  8. make a day of it
  9. make a decision
  10. make a dent
  11. make a difference

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-make a clean breast.ogg.

Cite this entry: “make a clean breast.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/make_a_clean_breast. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.