confound

[kon-found, kuhn-, kon-found]

verb (used with object)

1. to perplex or amaze, especially by a sudden disturbance or surprise; bewilder; confuse.

   The complicated directions confounded him.

   Synonyms: nonplus, daze, dumbfound, astound

2. to throw into confusion or disorder.

   The revolution confounded the people.

3. to throw into increased confusion or disorder.

4. to treat or regard erroneously as identical; mix or associate by mistake.

   truth confounded with error.

5. to mingle so that the elements cannot be distinguished or separated.

6. to damn (used in mild imprecations).

   Confound it!

7. to contradict or refute.

   to confound their arguments.

8. to put to shame; abash.

9. Archaic.

   1. to defeat or overthrow.

   2. to bring to ruin or naught.

10. Obsolete.,  to spend uselessly; waste.

confound

/ kənˈfaʊnd /

verb

1. to astound or perplex; bewilder

2. to mix up; confuse

3. to treat mistakenly as similar to or identical with (one or more other things)

4. to curse or damn (usually as an expletive in the phrase confound it! )

5. to contradict or refute (an argument, etc)

6. to rout or defeat (an enemy)

7. obsolete,  to waste

Other Word Forms

• confoundable adjective
• confounder noun
• interconfound verb (used with object)
• preconfound verb (used with object)
• unconfound verb (used with object)

Word History and Origins

Origin of confound¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English conf(o)unden, from Anglo-French confoundre, from Latin confundere “to mix,” equivalent to con- con- + fundere “to pour”

Word History and Origins

Origin of confound¹

C13: from Old French confondre, from Latin confundere to mingle, pour together, from fundere to pour

Example Sentences

“So you see, Mr. Harley-Dickinson,” she concluded, “that is why I must speak with that Gypsy. Unlikely as it seems, the semitoothless soothsayer may know something about what lies beneath all these confounding events.”

Read more on Literature

Then, as has happened so often this season, a confounding moment of adversity struck.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The various studies are mainly observational and could be skewed by confounding factors—people who are healthy for other reasons could use stairs more, for example.

Read more on Barron's

“There’s no sugarcoating this,” Freeman echoed a few weeks later, when another confounding sweep to the Pittsburgh Pirates in early September was followed by another walk-off loss to the Orioles in team’s series-opener in Baltimore.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Set in Maycomb, it sees two siblings, clearly Lee and her older sister Alice, confounded by her sister's black gardener Arthur, who's from the North but has apparently decided to work in the segregationist South.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• amaze 
• astonish 
• astound 
• baffle 
• bewilder 
• discombobulate 
• dumbfound 
• embarrass 
• faze 
• mystify 
• perplex 
• puzzle 
• rattle 
• startle 
• surprise