MAKE A CLEAN BREAST OF

 Dictionary entry overview: What does make a clean breast of mean? 

• MAKE A CLEAN BREAST OF (verb)
  The verb MAKE A CLEAN BREAST OF has 1 sense:

1. admit or acknowledge a wrongdoing or error

  Familiarity information: MAKE A CLEAN BREAST OF used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MAKE A CLEAN BREAST OF (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Admit or acknowledge a wrongdoing or error

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

fess up; make a clean breast of; own up

Context example:

the writer of the anonymous letter owned up after they identified his handwriting

Hypernyms (to "make a clean breast of" is one way to...):

concede; confess; profess (admit (to a wrongdoing))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

 Context examples 

I have to make a clean breast of it all.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)