Definition of "fess" []

• Heraldry A wide horizontal band forming the middle section of an escutcheon. (noun)
• Informal To admit to something; confess, often used with up: "won't fess up to being even vaguely liberal” ( Jonathan Alter). (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Truth & Reconciliation: The Israeli neo-cons need to 'fess up! yahooBuzzArticleHeadline =' Truth & Reconciliation: The Israeli neo-cons need to \'fess up! '"
• "Call them collectors, in other words - even though it's not a moniker they fess up to."
• "Another modern coat which may provoke a groan is that granted in 1977 to Dr. Claude Bursill, which includes three burrs, or teasels, and the heraldic ordinary known as a fess, which resembles a horizontal slab or sill."