confidante

Etymology

From French confidente.

Noun

confidante (plural confidantes)

1. A female confidant.
   • 2019 May 5, Danette Chavez, “Campaigns are Waged On and Off the Game Of Thrones Battlefield (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 28 January 2021:

     Dany’s descent into madness is coming, of that there’s no doubt, especially given that the episode ends with the execution of her confidante Missandei.

2. A type of settee having a seat at each end at right angles to the main seats.
   • 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 20:

     Meanwhile, Sally peels herself from the stage's only prop – a green-velvet confidante – and staggers off into the wings.

3. Nonstandard spelling of confidant (male).
   • 1847, Harriette Smythies, A Warning to Lives: or, the Platonic Lover. A Novel, volume 1, page 107:

     To Major Smiley, as his friend, his adviser, and his confidante, Adolphus Fitzopal had opened his heart […]

   • 1976, Paul Misner, Papacy and Development: Newman and the Primacy of the Pope, →ISBN, page 1:

     Henry Wilberforce was one of his few confidantes, certainly the one of longest standing, now that Bowden and Froude were gone and Rogers declined to correspond with him.

   • 1994 [1989], Ignacio Larrañaga, translated by Jennie M. Ibarra, Brother Francis of Assisi, →ISBN, page 45:

     The fortunate confidante is lost in anonymity. He is a character who has always intrigued biographers […] [but] nothing is known about his name or his personal history.

Participle

confidante (plural confidanti)

1. present participle of confidare