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:
Sometimes they illustrate his thesis; sometimes they confute it.
From Time Magazine Archive
Healthy, vigorous and solvent, they confute the view that old age, as William Butler Yeats put it, is nothing but a tattered coat upon a stick.
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
As head of the Government I wish once and for all to confute this miserable lie.
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 E. Rameur
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
Not a single allegation but may be easily confuted; and yet I allow that your position is incontrovertibly proved by them.
From Ormond, Volume II (of 3) or, The Secret Witness by Charles Brockden Brown
He confuted the most learned Jews in their arguments, and applied such wholesome truths to the test of their consciences, that being sorely galled, and unable to answer, their rage was unbounded.
From Bible Stories by Anonymous
Well, I do compose then—so you are confuted!
From Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy from Italy and Switzerland by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
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 John Gay
The urgency of confuting heretics made it necessary to find new words to express the ancient faith about God.
From Summa Theologica, Part I (Prima Pars) From the Complete American Edition by Saint Thomas Aquinas
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 William Michael Rossetti
As a matter of fact Franco had several times started to write with the intention of confuting his wife's opinions.
From The Patriot Piccolo Mondo Antico by Antonio Fogazzaro
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.
