Also 5 -ens. [ad. L. confīdentia, n. of quality or state f. confīdent-em: see CONFIDENT and -ENCE. Cf. F. confidence (14th c. in Oresme), but some of the senses are not found in F. (where they are expressed by confiance).]
1. The mental attitude of trusting in or relying on a person or thing; firm trust, reliance, faith. Const. in († to, on, upon).
c. 1430. Lydg., in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems, 47. Alle verteu … Made stable in god by gostly confidence.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, xxv. 93. The whiche goddes, hauynge confydence in trustynge his sayd promysse.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. cxvii. 9. It is better to trust in the Lorde, then to put eny confidence in man.
1557. North, trans. Gueuara’s Diall Pr., 133 b/1. The sonne … will not haue to his father any great confidence.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., II. iv. 6. The King reposeth all his confidence in thee.
1649. Bp. Reynolds, Hosea, iv. 48. Confidence … in foraigne ayde.
1774. Goldsm., Grecian Hist., I. 310. The king would place more confidence in the engagements of the nobility than upon those of the … capricious multitude.
1837. B’Ness Bunsen, in Hare, Life, I. x. 448. He … never abused the most implicit confidence.
2. The feeling sure or certain of a fact or issue; assurance, certitude; assured expectation.
1555. Eden, Decades, III. III. 104. They … with no lesse confydence licke their lippes secreately in hope of their praye.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., I. ii. 414. He thinkes, nay with all confidence he sweares, As he had seen’t.
a. 1698. Temple, Ess. Heroic Virtue, Wks. 1731, I. 230. The very Confidence of Victory … makes Armies victorious.
1790. Beatson, Nav. & Mil. Mem., I. 209. Wrapped up in a vain confidence of his own abilities.
1872. Freeman, Hist. Ess. (ed. 3), 12. This story … I affirm with less confidence.
† b. Const. to do. Obs.
1667. Milton, P. L., VI. 343. Humbl’d by such rebuke, so farr beneath His confidence to equal God in power.
† c. In, on, upon confidence (of, that, to do).
a. 1600. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., VI. v. § 6 (1841). Not in confidence to redeem sin but as tokens of meek submission.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xvii. 88. Men agree to submit to some Man on confidence to be protected by him.
1654. H. L’Estrange, Chas. I. (1655), 51. In confidence thereof, the Duke left him.
3. Assurance, boldness, fearlessness, arising from reliance (on oneself, on circumstances, on divine support, etc.).
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 17 b. By the holy loue of charite we may haue great confydence and meke boldnesse.
1526. Tindale, Acts xxviii. 31. Preachyng the kyngdome of God … with all confidence [so 1611; 1881 Rev. boldness].
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., II. ii. 49. Alas my Lord, Your wisedome is consum’d in confidence: Do not go forth to day: Call it my feare.
1752. Johnson, Rambler, No. 194, ¶ 3. He … was able to address those whom he never saw before with ease and confidence.
1832. W. Irving, Alhambra, 367 At first she touched her lute with a faltering hand, but gathering confidence and animation as she proceeded, drew forth … soft aerial harmony.
b. Const. To have c. to do (anything).
1535. Coverdale, 1 Chron. xviii. [xvii]. 25. Therfore hath thy seruaunt founde (confydence) to make his prayer before the.
1705. Stanhope, Paraphr., III. 436. Who can have the confidence to think himself excused, toward those of a differing Judgement.
1818. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. IV. v. 167. Conflans had no longer confidence to meet the English in the field.
4. In a bad sense: Assurance based on insufficient or improper grounds; excess of assurance, over-boldness, hardihood, presumption, impudence.
1594. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., Ded. (J.). Their confidence, for the most part, riseth from too much credit given to their own wits.
1656. Jer. Taylor, in Evelyn’s Mem. (1857), III. 72. The confidence of men, who of themselves are apt enough to hide their vices in irreligion.
1667. Pepys, Diary (1877), V. 56. My wife begun to complain to me of Willetts confidence in sitting cheek by jowl by us.
1694. R. Molesworth, Acc. Denmark (ed. 3), C iij b. The French Ambassador had the Confidence to tear out of the Book of Mottos in the Kings Library, this Verse, which Mr. Sydney … had written in it.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 502, ¶ 2. The intolerable Folly and Confidence of Players putting in Words of their own.
b. As an appellation: = Confident one.
1741. Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. xxii. 272. Do I want you, confidence! Yes, I do. Where have you been these two hours, that you never came near me?
5. An object or ground of trust; ‘that which gives confidence, boldness, or security’ (J.).
1535. Coverdale, Job xxxi. 24. Or, haue I sayde to the fynest golde of all: thou art my confidence?
1611. Bible, Prov. iii. 26. For the Lord shalbe thy confidence.
6. The confiding of private or secret matters to another; the relation of intimacy or trust between persons so confiding; confidential intimacy.
(In the first three quots. some take confidence as a humorous blunder for conference.)
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. iv. 133. I desire some confidence with you. Ibid. (1598), Merry W., I. iv. 172. I will tell your Worship more of the Wart, the next time we haue confidence. Ibid. (1599), Much Ado, III. v. 3. Mary sir I would haue some confidence with you, that decernes you nearely. Ibid. (1613), Hen. VIII., I. ii. 167. With demure Confidence This pausingly ensu’de.
1632. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 172 He telling [it] in confidence to a friend of his.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 52, ¶ 1. No one was in Confidence with her in carrying on this Treaty but the matchless Virgulta.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 66. To see if he could pitch upon one man more likely than the rest, to enter into some confidence with.
1741. Middleton, Cicero, I. IV. 258. Cicero had no great joy from his victory, or comfort in preserving such a Citizen, who lived afterwards in great confidence with Cæsar.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xv. I have possessed two or three tattling fools, in deep confidence, that [etc.].
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 489. Speaking in confidence, for I should not like to have my words repeated.
7. A confidential communication.
1748. Chesterf., Lett., II. clxiv. 100. He will … be well informed of all that passes … by the confidences made him.
1860. Sala, Lady Chesterf., Pref. 3. I intended these Letters to be the confidences and counsels of a garrulous old woman of the world.
1870. Helps, Ess., Secrecy, 54. Before you make any confidence, you should consider whether the thing you wish to confide is of weight enough to be a secret.
† 8. Trustworthiness, as a personal quality. A person of confidence: one entrusted with matters of importance or secrecy, a confidential agent. Cf. CONFIDENT a. 6.
1642. Jer. Taylor, Episc. (1647), 366. Bishops and Priests were men of great ability and surest confidence for determinations of justice.
1777. Robertson, Hist. Amer. (1783), II. 223. He sent a person of confidence to the Havana, with … farther orders.
1791. Gentl. Mag., LXI. II. 864. If your Lordship pleases, I will nominate a person of confidence.
1800. trans. Cervantes’ Force of Blood, 161. She sent a man of confidence to the priest.
† 9. Law. = TRUST. Obs.
1536. Act 27 Hen. VIII., c. 10. Feoffments, fines, recoveries, and other like assurances to uses, confidences, and trusts.—Seised … of … lands … to the use, confidence, or trust of any other person or persons, or of any body politick.
1574. trans. Littleton’s Tenures, 97 a. Feoffments made uppon confidence to perfourme the will of the feoffour.
1628. Coke, On Litt., 271. If a man enfeoffe other men of his land vpon confidence, and to the intent to performe his last will.
1767. Blackstone, Comm., II. 332.
1848. Wharton, Law Lex., 669/2. All matters of trust and confidence are exclusively cognizable in equity.
b. Eccl. (See quot.)
1872. W. H. Jervis, Gallican Ch., I. v. 212, note. A ‘confidence’ is a contract by which an ecclesiastic receives a benefice on condition of paying the emoluments, or a part of them, to a third person; or covenants to resign the preferment at a specified time.
10. Confidence trick (game, etc.): a method of professional swindling, in which the victim is induced to hand over money or other valuables as a token of ‘confidence’ in the sharper. Confidence man: one who practises this trick; a professional swindler of respectable appearance and address.
1857. H. Melville (title), The Confidence-man: His Masquerade.
1884. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 22 Nov., 6/5. For some weeks the newspapers here have waged a war of extermination against gamblers, confidence men, thieves and others of like ilk.
