confute
Americanverb (used with object)
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to prove to be false, invalid, or defective; disprove.
to confute an argument.
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to prove (a person) to be wrong by argument or proof.
to confute one's opponent.
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Obsolete. to bring to naught; confound.
verb
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to prove (a person or thing) wrong, invalid, or mistaken; disprove
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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:
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
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
There must be hundreds of instances to confute him, only for the moment she could not remember any of them.
From The Turnstile by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason
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
When the authenticity of the Parian Chronicle was doubted by the Rev. Joseph Robertson, in a work which he published, it was reviewed and confuted by the Rev. John Hewlett.
From The Life and Writings of Henry Fuseli, Volume I (of 3) by John Knowles
"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 George Jacob Holyoake
The colossal sleeping figure in its supreme repose confuted every doubt, resting where it had rested for a million years, and would still rest for a million more.
From The Car That Went Abroad Motoring Through the Golden Age by Albert Bigelow Paine
Macmillan," he wrote, "seemed in his very person to embody the national decay he supposed himself to be confuting.
From Time Magazine Archive
Christianity in later years did not triumph by confuting the objections raised against it on the part of culture.
From Joy in Service; Forgetting, and Pressing Onward; Until the Day Dawn by George Tybout Purves
A philanthropist undertakes to convert a misanthrope, but does not get beyond confuting him.
From The Confidence-Man by Herman Melville
It was partly to their success in confuting absurd doctrines that their confidence was due; though the confidence was excessive when it was transferred to the axioms from which they professed to start.
From The English Utilitarians, Volume II (of 3) James Mill by Sir Leslie Stephen
Still I determined to watch and note events with a view to confuting the superstition which foresaw good luck in the presence of this cat and her offspring.
From The House An Episode in the Lives of Reuben Baker, Astronomer, and of His Wife, Alice by Eugene Field
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