profess
PROFESS, v.t. L. professus, profiteor; pro and fateor.
1. To make open declaration of; to avow or acknowledge.
Let no man who professes himself a christian, keep so heathenish a family as not to see God by daily worshipped in it.
They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him. Tit.1.
2. To declare in strong terms.
Then will I profess to them, I never knew you. Matt.7.
3. To make a show of any sentiments by loud declaration.
To your professing bosoms I commit him.
4. To declare publicly ones skill in any art or science, for inviting employment; as, to profess ones self a physician; he professes surgery.
PROFESS, v.i. To declare friendship. Not in use.
professing
PROFESSING, ppr. Openly declaring; avowing; acknowledging.
profession
PROFESSION, n. L. professio.
1. Open declaration; public avowal or acknowledgment of ones sentiments or belief; as professions of friendship or sincerity; a profession of faith or religion.
The professions of princes,when a crown is the bait, are a slender security.
The Indians quickly perceive the coincidence or the contradiction between professions and conduct, and their confidence or distrust follows of course.
2. The business which one professes to understand and to follow for subsistence; calling; vocation; employment; as the learned professions. We speak of the profession of a clergyman, of a lawyer, and of a physician or surgeon; the profession of lecturer on chimistry or mineralogy. But the word is not applied to an occupation merely mechanical.
3. The collective body of persons engaged in a calling. We speak of practices honorable or disgraceful to a profession.
4. Among the Romanists,the entering into a religious order, by which a person offers himself to God by a vow of inviolable obedience, chastity and poverty.