confidential

From Latin confidentia +‎ -al.

• IPA^(key): /ˌkɑːnfɪˈdɛnʃl/

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confidential (comparative more confidential, superlative most confidential)

1. Kept, or meant to be kept, secret within a certain circle of persons; not intended to be known publicly

   Synonyms: private, classified, off the record, privileged, secret, dern (obsolete)

   Antonyms: public, on the record

   The newspaper claims a leaked confidential report by the government admits to problems with corrupt MPs.

   • 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Edinburgh: William Blackwood, Book 6, Chapter 61, p. 355,

     […] I have a communication of a very private—indeed, I will say, of a sacredly confidential nature, which I desire to make to you.

   • 1960, Muriel Spark, The Bachelors, Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1961, Chapter 10, p. 163,

     It would tell against your reputation, losing a confidential document, wouldn’t it? Why didn’t you keep it confidential if it was confidential?

2. (dated) Inclined to share confidences; (of things) making people inclined to share confidences; involving the sharing of confidences.

   Sitting in front of the fire, they became quite confidential, and began to gossip.

   • 1814 July, [Jane Austen], chapter XVI, in Mansfield Park: […], volume III, London: […] T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 310:

     Long, long would it be ere Miss Crawford’s name passed his lips again, or she could hope for a renewal of such confidential intercourse as had been.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 11, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 60:

     I was only alive to the condensed confidential comfortableness of sharing a pipe and a blanket with a real friend.

   • 1905, Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth, New York: Scribner, Book 2, Chapter 2, p. 329,

     She and Bertha had never been on confidential terms, but at such a crisis the barriers of reserve must surely fall:

   • 1923, Arnold Bennett, Riceyman Steps, London: Cassell, Part 5, Chapter 2, p. 241,

     Miss Raste was encouraged to be entirely confidential, to withhold nothing even about herself, by the confidence-inspiring and kindly aspect of Elsie’s face.

3. (dated) Having someone's confidence or trust; having a position requiring trust; worthy of being trusted with confidences.

   a confidential agent; a confidential servant; a confidential whisper

   • 1819, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 168:

     Now, they want me to send up a confidential person with some writings.

   • 1848, Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, London: T.C. Newby, Volume 1, Chapter 18, pp. 320-321,

     This paper will serve instead of a confidential friend into whose ear I might pour forth the overflowings of my heart.

   • 1859, Charles Dickens, chapter 3, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book I (Recalled to Life), page 11:

     […] perhaps the confidential bachelor clerks in Tellson’s Bank were principally occupied with the cares of other people;

   • 1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not ..., London: Duckworth, Part 2, Chapter 2, p. 245,

     I repeated the instruction by letter and I kept a copy of the letter witnessed by my confidential maid.

   • 1959, Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan, New York: Dial, 2006, Chapter 6, p. 155,

     “He said he was a confidential messenger,” shouted a man.

• confidential informant
• confidentiality
• confidentially

• confide
• confidence