"fess up" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "confess up"
      },
      "expansion": "Clipping of confess up",
      "name": "clipping"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Clipping of confess up.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "fesses up",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fessing up",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fessed up",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fessed up",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "fess up (third-person singular simple present fesses up, present participle fessing up, simple past and past participle fessed up)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs with particle (up)",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1918, Rex Ellingwood Beach, chapter 26, in The Winds of Chance",
          "text": "\"‛Fess up,\" she persisted. \"Have you boys been quarreling again?\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 December 18, Barack Obama, President-elect press conference",
          "text": "And you know, one of the things that I hope is that the American people will find when we make a mistake, we're willing to 'fess up to it and change.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009 February 26, Roy Furchgott, “You’ve Sold Your Stocks. Now What?”, in New York Times",
          "text": "“I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was happening in the financial industry, and I came to the conclusion that people weren’t fessing up,” he said.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To confess to something; to admit something."
      ],
      "id": "en-fess_up-en-verb-CcBKYCsR",
      "links": [
        [
          "confess",
          "confess"
        ],
        [
          "admit",
          "admit"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, colloquial) To confess to something; to admit something."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "own up"
        },
        {
          "english": "with preceding apostrophe",
          "word": "'fess up"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-fess up.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7a/En-au-fess_up.ogg/En-au-fess_up.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/En-au-fess_up.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "fess up"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "confess up"
      },
      "expansion": "Clipping of confess up",
      "name": "clipping"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Clipping of confess up.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "fesses up",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fessing up",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fessed up",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fessed up",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "fess up (third-person singular simple present fesses up, present participle fessing up, simple past and past participle fessed up)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English clippings",
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrasal verbs",
        "English phrasal verbs with particle (up)",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1918, Rex Ellingwood Beach, chapter 26, in The Winds of Chance",
          "text": "\"‛Fess up,\" she persisted. \"Have you boys been quarreling again?\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 December 18, Barack Obama, President-elect press conference",
          "text": "And you know, one of the things that I hope is that the American people will find when we make a mistake, we're willing to 'fess up to it and change.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009 February 26, Roy Furchgott, “You’ve Sold Your Stocks. Now What?”, in New York Times",
          "text": "“I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was happening in the financial industry, and I came to the conclusion that people weren’t fessing up,” he said.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To confess to something; to admit something."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "confess",
          "confess"
        ],
        [
          "admit",
          "admit"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, colloquial) To confess to something; to admit something."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "own up"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-fess up.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7a/En-au-fess_up.ogg/En-au-fess_up.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/En-au-fess_up.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "english": "with preceding apostrophe",
      "word": "'fess up"
    }
  ],
  "word": "fess up"
}