own up

verb

admit or acknowledge a wrongdoing or error

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the writer of the anonymous letter owned up after they identified his handwriting

• Syn: ↑make a clean breast of, ↑fess up

• Hypernyms: ↑concede, ↑profess, ↑confess

• Verb Frames:

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Somebody ——s

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intransitive verb

: to admit or confess frankly and fully

if your ball broke the window … you own up — Boy Scout Handbook

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own up

To confess (often with to)

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Main Entry: ↑own

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ˌown ˈup [intransitive] [present tense I/you/we/they own up he/she/it owns up present participle owning up past tense owned up past participle owned up] phrasal verb

to admit that you have done something bad or embarrassing

Dan could have made this whole thing go away simply by owning up.

own up to:

Two local students later owned up to the prank.

Thesaurus: to admit you are wrong or have done something wrong_synonym

Main entry: own

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admit or confess to having done something wrong or embarrassing

he owns up to few mistakes

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own up [phrasal verb]

: to admit that you have done a usually bad thing : to confess to something

I know he broke the window, but so far, he hasn't owned up.

— usually + to

I'm waiting for him to own up to it.

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Main Entry: ↑own