confute
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to prove to be false, invalid, or defective; disprove.
to confute an argument.
-
to prove (a person) to be wrong by argument or proof.
to confute one's opponent.
-
Obsolete. to bring to naught; confound.
verb
-
to prove (a person or thing) wrong, invalid, or mistaken; disprove
-
obsolete to put an end to
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of confute
1520–30; < Latin confūtāre to abash, silence, refute, equivalent to con- con- + -fūtāre; cf. refute
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
As head of the Government I wish once and for all to confute this miserable lie.
From Time Magazine Archive
Sometimes they illustrate his thesis; sometimes they confute it.
From Time Magazine Archive
Delighted at this really "safe" issue, the Deputies rose to support or confute Dr. Pinard.
From Time Magazine Archive
Now comes the "mediator" trying to keep peace between many power centers and "the Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects confute."
From Time Magazine Archive
St. Thomas had, however, to confute the errors of Aristotle, and of Abelard and others who had followed them, while he set forth the great truths of reason which he taught.
From The Catholic World; Volume I, Issues 1-6 A Monthly Eclectic Magazine by Rameur, E.
Arguably, though, Stone and Kuznick's contention is less readily confuted.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 15, 2013
Those who expressed skepticism when the American Telephone & Telegraph Co. raised the dividend rate on its common stock to $9 were confuted by the Company's earnings for 1923.
From Time Magazine Archive
And they have been often alleged to Flavian* himself, and never have been confuted, no not yet.
From Arguments Of Celsus, Porphyry, And The Emperor Julian, Against The Christians Also Extracts from Diodorus Siculus, Josephus, and Tacitus, Relating to the Jews, Together with an Appendix by Taylor, Thomas
The author of such a Key and romance would be confuted at once by the exclamation, “If these horrors are general, people would flee marriage as they do the plague.”
From The Brothers' War by Reed, John Calvin
"False ideas can be confuted by argument, but it is only by true ideas they can be expelled."
From English Secularism A Confession Of Belief by Holyoake, George Jacob
Macmillan," he wrote, "seemed in his very person to embody the national decay he supposed himself to be confuting.
From Time Magazine Archive
Its power, Added to beauty as its dower, Has oftentimes—there's no disputing— Added a charm, was passed confuting.
From Fables of John Gay (Somewhat Altered) by Gay, John
Divers of them held the opinion that the Cartesians, in confuting the anonymous philosopher, had conceded too much to philosophy.
From Theodicy Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil by Huggard, E.M.
Another apology for its length may also be offered:—its importance as confuting Schlegel's opinion, that the frequent mention of Genii is more consistent with Indian than with Arab notions.
From The Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I. Commonly Called the Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Anonymous
Cowden Clarke confirms Hunt in stating that Keats’s hair was brown, and he assigns the same colour, or dark hazel, to his eyes: confuting the “auburn” and “blue” of which Mrs. Procter had spoken.
From Life of John Keats by Rossetti, William Michael
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
