confirm Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb establish or strengthen as with new evidence or facts
    affirm; substantiate; support; corroborate; sustain.
    • his story confirmed my doubts
    • The evidence supports the defendant
  2. verb strengthen or make more firm
    reassert.
    • The witnesses confirmed the victim's account
  3. verb make more firm
    • Confirm thy soul in self-control!
  4. verb support a person for a position
    • The Senate confirmed the President's candidate for Secretary of Defense
  5. verb administer the rite of confirmation to
    • the children were confirmed in their mother's faith

WordNet

Con*firm" transitive verb
Etymology
OE. confermen, confirmen, OF. confermer, F. confirmer, fr. L. confirmare; con- + firmare to make firm, fr. firmus firm. See Firm.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Confrmed ; present participle & verbal noun Confirming
Definitions
  1. To make firm or firmer; to add strength to; to establish; as, health is confirmed by exercise.
    Confirm the crown to me and to mine heirs. Shak.
    Annd confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law. Ps. cv. 10.
  2. To strengthen in judgment or purpose.
    Confirmed, then, I resolve Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe. Milton.
  3. To give new assurance of the truth of; to render certain; to verify; to corroborate; as, to confirm a rumor.
    Your eyes shall witness and confirm my tale. Pope.
    These likelihoods confirm her flight. Shak.
  4. To render valid by formal assent; to complete by a necessary sanction; to ratify; as, to confirm the appoinment of an official; the Senate confirms a treaty.
    That treaty so prejudicial ought to have been remitted rather than confimed. Swift.
  5. (Eccl.) To administer the rite of confirmation to. See Confirmation, 3.
    Those which are thus confirmed are thereby supposed to be fit for admission to the sacrament. Hammond.
    Syn. -- To strengthen; corroborate; substantiate; establish; fix; ratify; settle; verify; assure.

Webster 1913