vot-; vov-; vow

The right in English ecclesiastical law of a presentation to a vacant benefice.

1. To admit openly and bluntly.
2. To declare or to affirm solemnly and formally as true.
3. To acknowledge openly, boldly, and unashamedly.

To confess, or "to avow guilt" does NOT come from the same Latin source as vow (from Anglo-French and Old French vou) which comes from Latin votum, "a vow, a wish, a promise, a dedication".

Avow comes from Latin, vocare, "to call". From Old French avouer, "acknowledge, accept"; especially, as a protector, from Latin advocare.

Capable of being avowed, or openly acknowledged, with confidence.

A statement asserting the existence or the truth of something. A frank admission, statement, or acknowledgment of something.

1. Open declaration or acknowledgment (being recognized).
2. A frank admission or acknowledgment.

The state, or quality, of being avowed (positively stated).

1. Someone who admits, or acknowledges, openly and boldly.
2. Someone who claims to speak the truth.

1. The acknowledgment and justification of the taking of the goods by the defendant in an action of of replevin (a legal act, or writ, to recover goods by someone who claims to own them and who promises to have the claim later tested in court).
2. A situation where the defendant in an action of replevin, avows the taking of the distress in his own right, or in right of his wife, and sets forth the cause of it, as for arrears of rent, damage done, or the like.