PROFESSED

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does professed mean? 

• PROFESSED (adjective)
  The adjective PROFESSED has 3 senses:

1. professing to be qualified

2. claimed with intent to deceive

3. openly declared as such

  Familiarity information: PROFESSED used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PROFESSED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Professing to be qualified

Context example:

a professed philosopher

Similar:

professional (engaged in a profession or engaging in as a profession or means of livelihood)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Claimed with intent to deceive

Context example:

his professed intentions

Similar:

declared (made known or openly avowed)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Openly declared as such

Synonyms:

avowed; professed

Context example:

McKinley was assassinated by a professed anarchist

Similar:

declared (made known or openly avowed)

 Context examples 

Bingley was every thing that was charming, except the professed lover of her daughter.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

He professed himself extremely anxious about her fair friend—her fair, lovely, amiable friend.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Mr. Dick professed an absolute certainty of having seen him before, and we both said, “Very likely.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

To do him justice, however, he did not resolve to appropriate it; for remembering that there was some very good ranting-ground in Frederick, he professed an equal willingness for that.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Mr. Rochester professed to be puzzled.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He professed both to abominate and despise all mystery, refinement, and intrigue, either in a prince or a minister.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

That he was a sensible man, an agreeable man, that he talked well, professed good opinions, seemed to judge properly and as a man of principle, this was all clear enough.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The bed, the carpet, the chairs the mantelpiece, the dead body, and the rope were each in turn examined, until at last he professed himself satisfied, and with my aid and that of the inspector cut down the wretched object and laid it reverently under a sheet.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I recognized him at once as Stanley Hopkins, a young police inspector, for whose future Holmes had high hopes, while he in turn professed the admiration and respect of a pupil for the scientific methods of the famous amateur.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

No;—not less when I knew you to be unhappy, than when I had believed you at ease, did I turn away from every exertion of duty or friendship; scarcely allowing sorrow to exist but with me, regretting only THAT heart which had deserted and wronged me, and leaving you, for whom I professed an unbounded affection, to be miserable for my sake.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)