come clean

Idioms and Phrases

Confess everything, as in If you come clean about what happened I will promise to keep it to myself . [ Slang ; early 1900s]

Example Sentences

In the Commons, shadow leader of the House Chris Philp urged the government to make a statement and "come clean"; while Tory former minister Harriett Baldwin called for a debate on the government's approach to breaches of the ministerial code.

From BBC

Philp told MPs the government needed to "come clean and tell the truth".

From BBC

The book doesn’t come clean about what really happened; most readers, who won’t remember the incident, will be left confused.

From Slate

"Instead of desperately trying to mitigate the impact of their own decisions, the chancellor should come clean and publish the internal impact assessment so the public can truly see the damage of this policy," she added.

From BBC

I tried to get him to come clean.

From Los Angeles Times