make a clean breast
Often followed by of: to be honest about somethingOften followed by of: to be honest about something; to confess.
» You'd better make a clean breast of everything.
CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
1 senses(idiomatic)Often followed by of: to be honest about something; to confess.
Examples
7 sentencesYou'd better make a clean breast of everything.
Make a clean breast of your secrets.
You had better make a clean breast of everything.
Tom made a clean breast of the whole matter.
ruТом полностью сознался во всём. — sharptoothed
You must make a clean breast of what you saw at that time.
Origin
From the notion that secrets are figuratively hidden in the heart which is contained in thFrom the notion that secrets are figuratively hidden in the heart which is contained in the breast (“chest”), and that admitting them will cause the heart to become clean and pure.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
makes a clean breast, making a clean breast, made a clean breast, made a clean breast| Base form | make a clean breast · to make a clean breast |
|---|---|
| 3rd person singular | makes a clean breast |
| Present participle | making a clean breast |
| Past simple | made a clean breast |
| Past participle | made a clean breast |
irregular · Lesson
Synonyms
22 synonymsLessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, irregular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.