confidential

What it means

1. Kept, or meant to be kept, secret within a certain circle of persons; not intended to be known publicly.

   The newspaper claims a leaked confidential report by the government admits to problems with corrupt MPs.

   3 more examples

   […]I have a communication of a very private—indeed, I will say, of a sacredly confidential nature, which I desire to make to you.

   1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter LXI, in Middlemarch […], volume III, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book VI, page 355

   It would tell against your reputation, losing a confidential document, wouldn’t it? Why didn’t you keep it confidential if it was confidential?

   1960, Muriel Spark, chapter 10, in The Bachelors, Philadelphia: Lippincott, published 1961, page 163

   “One of the things that I think parents would tell you, and that students and victims and patients would tell you, is that we have a legal responsibility, but I think more importantly a moral responsibility, to hold their information confidential and private,” Blanton said.

   2016 September 1, Ellie Kaufman, “University of Kentucky sues student newspaper over sexual assault case”, in CNN

   Synonyms: private, classified, off the record, privileged, secret, dern · Antonyms: public, on the record

2. datedInclined to share confidences; (of things) making people inclined to share confidences; involving the sharing of confidences.

   Sitting in front of the fire, they became quite confidential, and began to gossip.

   4 more examples

   Long, long would it be ere Miss Crawford′s name passed his lips again, or she could hope for a renewal of such confidential intercourse as had been.

   1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter XVI, in Mansfield Park: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 310

   I was only alive to the condensed confidential comfortableness of sharing a pipe and a blanket with a real friend.

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Nightgown”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 60

   She and Bertha had never been on confidential terms, but at such a crisis the barriers of reserve must surely fall:[…]

   1905, Edith Wharton, chapter II, in The House of Mirth, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book II, page 329

   Miss Raste was encouraged to be entirely confidential, to withhold nothing even about herself, by the confidence-inspiring and kindly aspect of Elsie’s face.

   1923, Arnold Bennett, chapter II, in Riceyman Steps, London: Cassell, Part 5, page 241

3. datedHaving someone's confidence or trust; having a position requiring trust; worthy of being trusted with confidences.

   a confidential agent

   5 more examples

   a confidential servant

   a confidential whisper

   Now, they want me to send up a confidential person with some writings.

   1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter VIII, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume II (The Bride of Lammermoor), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 168

   This paper will serve instead of a confidential friend into whose ear I might pour forth the overflowings of my heart.

   1848, Anne Brontë, chapter 18, in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, volume 1, London: T.C. Newby, pages 320–321

   […]perhaps the confidential bachelor clerks in Tellson′s Bank were principally occupied with the cares of other people;[…]

   1859, Charles Dickens, “The Preparation”, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book I (Recalled to Life), page 11

In a sentence

The newspaper claims a leaked confidential report by the government admits to problems with corrupt MPs.

Where it comes from

From Latin cōnfīdentia + English -al. Possibly a calque of French confidentiel. First attested in 1641.