Word.ws English Dictionary

making a clean breast

making a clean breast is the present participle and gerund 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)

  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

Questions about making a clean breast

What is making a clean breast the present participle and gerund of?
Making a clean breast is the present participle and gerund of make a clean breast.

Words near making a clean breast in the dictionary

  1. making a career of
  2. making a case
  3. making a case for
  4. making a cat laugh
  5. making a clean break
  6. making a clean breast
  7. making a dash for it
  8. making a decision
  9. making a dent
  10. making a difference
  11. making a dollar out of fifteen cents

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: making 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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