All 4 Uses of
profess
in
The Idiot
- In short, their attitude was not that which one would have expected in men who professed to despise all trivialities, all foolish mundane conventions, and indeed everything, except their own personal interests.†
Chpt 2.7 *professed = claimed
- At every fresh avowal he professed the deepest repentance, and described himself as being "bathed in tears"; but this did not prevent him from putting on a boastful air at times, and some of his stories were so absurdly comical that both he and the prince laughed like madmen.†
Chpt 2.11
- In our country it is only among the upper classes that you find unbelievers; men who have lost the root or spirit of their faith; but abroad whole masses of the people are beginning to profess unbelief—at first because of the darkness and lies by which they were surrounded; but now out of fanaticism, out of loathing for the Church and Christianity!†
Chpt 4.7profess = claim
- She had certainly given him a wonderful smile, both at coming and again at leave-taking, but had not said a word, not even when the others all professed their friendship for him.†
Chpt 4.8professed = claimed
Definitions:
-
(1)
(profess) to claim (openly state) -- sometimes insincerely
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) Much more rarely, profess can mean:
- to teach or be knowledgeable of -- as in "profess chemistry"
- practice as a profession -- as in "profess medicine"
- proclaim belief in or allegiance to -- as in "profess Catholicism"