Pro-fĕss’1, v. t.
v. t. [imp. & p. p. PROFESSED (pro-fĕst’); p. pr. & vb. n. PROFESSING.] [Fr. professer, Pr. professar, Sp. profesar, It. professare, Lat. profiteri, professus, from pro, before, forward, and fateri, to confess, own.]
Sense 1. To make open declaration of; to avow or acknowledge; to confess publicly; to own freely.
The best and wisest of them all professed To know this only, that he nothing knew. Milton.
Sense 2. To set up a claim to; to make pretense to; hence, to pretend; to put on or present an appearance of.
I do profess to be no less than I seem. Shak.
Sense 3. To pretend to knowledge of; to proclaim one’s self versed in; to make one’s self a teacher or practitioner of; to set up as an authority respecting; to declare, as one’s self, such or such; as, to profess one’s self a physician; he professes surgery.