[Cf. prec. It may be that this was first formed to represent the sound of the F. confidente, and that the masc. confidant was formed from it. The feminine is the more common in use.] A female confidant.
1709. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett. Miss A. Wortley, 5 Sept. You are the only creature that I have made my confidante.
1752. Fielding, Amelia, II. i. I concluded with begging her to be the confidante of my amour.
1839–40. W. Irving, Wolfert’s R. (1855), 42. What is a lover without a confidante? I thought at once of my sister Sophy.
1883. F. J. Stimson, Mrs. Knollys, in Century Mag., XXVII. Nov., 150/1. How often we boys would go to her for sympathy! I know she was the confidante of all our love affairs.
