confide
C1Slightly formal. Common in personal, literary, and professional contexts.
Definition
Meaning
To tell someone a secret or private matter while trusting them not to reveal it.
To entrust something (e.g., a secret, a responsibility, a possession) to someone based on trust. Also, to place trust or faith in someone or something.
Linguistics
Semantic Notes
Implies a high degree of trust, vulnerability, and intimacy in the act of sharing. Often involves sensitive or personal information. The prepositional patterns are crucial: 'confide in [person]' and 'confide [secret] to [person]'.
Dialectal Variation
British vs American Usage
Differences
No significant difference in meaning or usage. Both varieties use the same patterns ('confide in', 'confide to').
Connotations
Slightly more formal in American English, but equally understood in both.
Frequency
Roughly equal frequency in both corpuses.
Vocabulary
Collocations
Grammar
Valency Patterns
[Subject] + confide + in + [Person][Subject] + confide + [Something] + to + [Person]Vocabulary
Synonyms
Strong
Neutral
Weak
Vocabulary
Antonyms
Phrases
Idioms & Phrases
- “confide in someone”
- “confide to someone”
Usage
Context Usage
Business
Rare in core business reports. Can appear in HR or management contexts regarding confidential feedback or information shared in trust.
Academic
Used in psychology, sociology, or literary analysis to describe acts of trust and disclosure.
Everyday
Common in personal relationships to describe sharing private thoughts or worries with a trusted person.
Technical
Not a technical term.
Examples
By Part of Speech
verb
British English
- She confided in her sister about the job offer.
- He confided his worries to his tutor.
American English
- I confided in my coworker about the issue.
- She confided the secret to her best friend.
adverb
British English
- N/A
American English
- N/A
adjective
British English
- N/A
American English
- N/A
Examples
By CEFR Level
- She confided in her mother.
- He confided the news to his brother.
- People often confide in therapists because it's a safe, confidential space.
- He confided to me that he was considering leaving the company.
- The prime minister confided in only a handful of senior advisers before making the controversial decision.
- In her memoirs, she confided her deep-seated fears about public life to her readers.
Learning
Memory Aids
Mnemonic
Think of 'CONfide' as trusting someone 'CON' (with) your secret. 'I confide IN my best friend' (the trust is INside that relationship).
Conceptual Metaphor
TRUST IS A CONTAINER ('confide IN someone'), SECRETS ARE BURDENS ('confide' to 'unburden' oneself), INTIMACY IS CLOSENESS (requiring a close relationship).
Watch out
Common Pitfalls
Translation Traps (for Russian speakers)
- Avoid direct translation of 'confide' as 'доверять' (to trust). Use 'доверить' (to entrust) for the 'confide something to someone' pattern, and 'откровенничать с', 'делиться сокровенным с' for 'confide in someone'.
- Russian 'поверять' is a closer but archaic match.
- The crucial distinction between 'confide in' (person) and 'confide to' (person) must be learned.
Common Mistakes
- Incorrect preposition: 'I confided to my friend' (if you mean 'I confided IN my friend'). 'Confided to' must have an object between: 'I confided my secret TO my friend'.
- Using without the necessary object/preposition: 'She confided.' is incomplete; needs 'in someone' or a 'something to someone'.
- Confusing with 'confident' (adjective).
Practice
Quiz
Which sentence uses 'confide' correctly?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
'Confide in [person]' means to share secrets with someone you trust. 'Confide [something] to [person]' means to entrust a specific secret or matter to someone. 'In' focuses on the trusted relationship; 'to' focuses on the act of transferring the information.
It is slightly formal or literary. In casual speech, people might say 'tell someone a secret' or 'open up to someone' more often than 'confide in'.
Rarely and only in very specific, often literary constructions (e.g., 'She wept and confided.'). In modern usage, it almost always requires 'in' or 'to'.
The related noun is 'confidence' (as in 'a secret told in confidence'), not a direct noun form 'confide'. The act is 'confiding'.