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CONFIDANT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Someone to whom private matters are confided
Synonyms:
confidant; intimate
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("confidant" is a kind of...):
friend (a person you know well and regard with affection and trust)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "confidant"):
confidante (a female confidant)
repository; secretary (a person to whom a secret is entrusted)
Derivation:
confide (reveal in private; tell confidentially)
Context examples:
Strange that I should choose you for the confidant of all this, young lady; passing strange that you should listen to me quietly, as if it were the most usual thing in the world for a man like me to tell stories of his opera-mistresses to a quaint, inexperienced girl like you!
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Meg was Amy's confidant and monitor, and by some strange attraction of opposites Jo was gentle Beth's.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Fanny was the only one of the party who found anything to dislike; but since the day at Sotherton, she could never see Mr. Crawford with either sister without observation, and seldom without wonder or censure; and had her confidence in her own judgment been equal to her exercise of it in every other respect, had she been sure that she was seeing clearly, and judging candidly, she would probably have made some important communications to her usual confidant.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Mother is always ready to be your confidant, Father to be your friend, and both of us hope and trust that our daughters, whether married or single, will be the pride and comfort of our lives.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
