profess

verb

1. 1

   To administer the vows of a religious order to (someone); to admit to a religious order. (Chiefly in passive.)

2. 2

   To declare oneself (to be something).

3. 3

   To declare; to assert, affirm.

4. 4

   To make a claim (to be something); to lay claim to (a given quality, feeling etc.), often with connotations of insincerity.

5. 5

   To declare one's adherence to (a religion, deity, principle etc.).

6. 6

   To work as a professor of; to teach.

7. 7

   To claim to have knowledge or understanding of (a given area of interest, subject matter).