an open avowal ( true or false) of some belief or opinion; " a profession of disagreement"

Making or maintaining a profession, as a professing Christian.

This fills the chasm objected to ours, as a defect in an institution professing to give instruction in all useful sciences. – Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson by Thomas Jefferson

He obtained his release by professing conformity to the new creed. – An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 by Mary Frances Cusack

East of the Atlantic, among the three Synods professing to follow the footsteps of the flock, the declared sentiment is the same, but then they differ from their brethren in practice- mingling with the heathen and learning their works without scruple. – Act, Declaration, & Testimony for the Whole of our Covenanted Reformation, as Attained to, and Established in Britain and Ireland; Particularly Betwixt the Years 1638 and 1649, Inclusive by The Reformed Presbytery

Under sentence of death, his behaviour was very regular, professing a deep sorrow and repentance for a very loose life which he had led, and at the same time peremptorily denying that he had any hand in, or knew anything of either of those facts which had been sworn against him, and for which he was to die. – Lives Of The Most Remarkable Criminals Who have been Condemned and Executed for Murder, the Highway, Housebreaking, Street Robberies, Coining or other offences by Arthur L. Hayward

Dave inquired about these little girls, after professing a satisfaction he only partly felt about the arrangements for receiving the raw material and delivering it ground. – When Ghost Meets Ghost by William Frend De Morgan

In the Central Provinces and United Provinces the increase in the number of persons professing Christianity, according to the census, was more than 300 per cent. – Modern India by William Eleroy Curtis

Though not professing to be a scholar, he was much addicted, when writing, to the use of Greek and Latin terms, not as other people used them, but in a manner of his own, which set the authority of dictionaries at defiance; the consequence was that I was sometimes utterly at a loss to understand the meaning of the publisher. – Lavengro The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest by George Borrow

The monks were professing to be searching for the missing brother. – The Secret Chamber at Chad by Evelyn Everett-Green

Those who think the contrary are fools, and if they go to the length of professing indifference to money they are " humbugs." – War-time Silhouettes by Stephen Hudson

But no message from anybody professing relationship with the dead man had so far reached the Wrychester police. – The Paradise Mystery by J. S. Fletcher

The latter, professing to be surprised and amused at Jane's fears, joined with Betsy in a laugh at her sister's expense. – Napoleon's Young Neighbor by Helen Leah Reed