To Profess

1. (transitive, chiefly passive) To administer the vows of a religious order to (someone); to admit to a religious order. [from 14th c.]
2. (reflexive) To declare oneself (to be something). [from 16th c.]
3. (transitive, intransitive) To declare; to assert, affirm. [from 16th c.]
4. (transitive) To make a claim (to be something); to lay claim to (a given quality, feeling etc.), often with connotations of insincerity. [from 16th c.]
5. (transitive) To declare one's adherence to (a religion, deity, principle etc.). [from 16th c.]
6. (transitive) To work as a professor of; to teach. [from 16th c.]
7. (transitive, now rare) To claim to have knowledge or understanding of (a given area of interest, subject matter). [from 16th c.]