7 uses
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Definition
to claim (openly state) — sometimes insincerely
- "I don't profess to understand every young lady's taste."Book 1 — Miss Brooke (56% in)
- "I will not profess bravery," said Lydgate, smiling, "but I acknowledge a good deal of pleasure in fighting, and I should not care for my profession, if I did not believe that better methods were to be found and enforced there as well as everywhere else."Book 2 — Old and Young (2% in)
- "Very well," said Mr. Vincy, kicking in spite of resolutions, "I never professed to be anything but worldly; and, what's more, I don't see anybody else who is not worldly.Book 2 — Old and Young (6% in)
- He does not profess to have more than second-hand knowledge there.Book 2 — Old and Young (96% in)
- "Farebrother says, he doesn't believe Brooke would get elected if the opportunity came: the very men who profess to be for him would bring another member out of the bag at the right moment."Book 5 — The Dead Hand (34% in)
- The pitiable lot is that of the man who could not call himself a martyr even though he were to persuade himself that the men who stoned him were but ugly passions incarnate—who knows that he is stoned, not for professing the Right, but for not being the man he professed to be.Book 8 — Sunset and Sunrise (93% in)
- The pitiable lot is that of the man who could not call himself a martyr even though he were to persuade himself that the men who stoned him were but ugly passions incarnate—who knows that he is stoned, not for professing the Right, but for not being the man he professed to be.Book 8 — Sunset and Sunrise (93% in)
There are no more uses of "profess" in Middlemarch.
Typical Usage
(best examples)