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Confidence   /kˈɑnfədəns/   Listen
noun
Confidence  n.  
1.
The act of confiding, trusting, or putting faith in; trust; reliance; belief; formerly followed by of, now commonly by in. "Society is built upon trust, and trust upon confidence of one another's integrity." "A cheerful confidence in the mercy of God."
2.
That in which faith is put or reliance had. "The Lord shall be thy confidence."
3.
The state of mind characterized by one's reliance on himself, or his circumstances; a feeling of self-sufficiency; such assurance as leads to a feeling of security; self-reliance; often with self prefixed. "Your wisdom is consumed in confidence; Do not go forth to-day." "But confidence then bore thee on secure Either to meet no danger, or to find Matter of glorious trial."
4.
Private conversation; (pl.) secrets shared; as, there were confidences between them. "Sir, I desire some confidence with you."
Confidence game, any swindling operation in which advantage is taken of the confidence reposed by the victim in the swindler; several swindlers often work together to create the illusion of truth; also called con game.
Confidence man, a swindler.
To take into one's confidence, to admit to a knowledge of one's feelings, purposes, or affairs.
Synonyms: Trust; assurance; expectation; hope. "I am confident that very much be done."
5.
Trustful; without fear or suspicion; frank; unreserved. "Be confident to speak, Northumberland; We three are but thyself."
6.
Having self-reliance; bold; undaunted. "As confident as is the falcon's flight Against a bird, do I with Mowbray fight."
7.
Having an excess of assurance; bold to a fault; dogmatical; impudent; presumptuous. "The fool rageth and is confident."
8.
Giving occasion for confidence. (R.) "The cause was more confident than the event was prosperous."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Confidence" Quotes from Famous Books



... for his trust in her with regard to her escapade, and felt much relieved that even to-night, when the subject was revived by Mr. Forester, he had not questioned her. It made her feel that she could never wish to deceive him or to abuse his confidence. ...
— Hunter's Marjory - A Story for Girls • Margaret Bruce Clarke

... beggarly understandings. Hence, in the case of Valckenaer, we must derive the contradictions in his diatribe. He practises this intolerable artifice; he calls himself [Greek: philenripideios]; bespeaks an unfair confidence from the reader; he takes credit for being once disposed to favour and indulge Euripides. In this way he accredits to the careless reader all the false charges or baseless concessions which he makes on any question between ...
— The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1 (2 vols) • Thomas De Quincey

... teaching about the slave and his master, and the slave's work, and the incompatibility of the notion of reward with the slave's service, to help to strengthen faith? There is this that this teaching beats down every trace of self-confidence, and if we take it in and live by it, makes us all feel that we stand before God, whatever have been our deeds of service, with no claims arising from any virtue or righteousness of our own. We come empty-handed. If the servant ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... a burly, red-bearded man, still well under middle age, and possessed of plenty of push and self-confidence. It soon transpired that he was an out-and-out champion of modern ideas in music; for, from the first, he was connected with a leading paper, in which he made his views known. He had a trenchant pen, and, with unfailing consistency, ...
— Maurice Guest • Henry Handel Richardson

... stunk. There was a man called Billy Fish, a good friend of us all, and they cut his throat, Sir, then and there, like a pig; and the King kicks up the bloody snow and says, 'We've had a dashed fine run for our money. What's coming next?' But Peachey, Peachey Taliaferro, I tell you, Sir, in confidence as betwixt two friends, he lost his head, Sir. No, he didn't, neither. The King lost his head, so he did, all along o' one of those cunning rope bridges. Kindly let me have the paper-cutter, Sir. It tilted this way. They marched him a mile across that snow to a rope bridge over a ...
— Stories by English Authors: Orient • Various


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