discomfit
Americanverb (used with object)
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discomfits,
present (3rd person singular)
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discomfited,
past participle, past
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discomfiting
present participle
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to confuse and deject; disconcert.
to be discomfited by a question.
- Synonyms:
- disturb, embarrass, discompose
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to frustrate the plans of; thwart; foil.
-
Archaic. to defeat utterly; rout.
The army was discomfited in every battle.
noun
verb
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to make uneasy, confused, or embarrassed
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to frustrate the plans or purpose of
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archaic to defeat in battle
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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discomfitsimple
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discomfitssimple
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have discomfitedperfect
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has discomfitedperfect
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am discomfitingprogressive
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are discomfitingprogressive
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is discomfitingprogressive
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have been discomfitingperfect progressive
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has been discomfitingperfect progressive
Past
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discomfitedsimple
-
had discomfitedperfect
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was discomfitingprogressive
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were discomfitingprogressive
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had been discomfitingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of discomfit
1175–1225; Middle English < Anglo-French descunfit, Old French desconfit, past participle of desconfire, equivalent to des- dis- 1 + confire to make, accomplish < Latin conficere; see confect
Explanation
To discomfit someone is to make them feel uncomfortable or upset. An easy way to discomfit another person is to use the age-old, childish trick of ignoring them. (Of course, we’re sure you would never do that, right? Right?) If you make someone blush, sweat, and generally want to disappear, you’ve discomfited her. Centuries ago, discomfit was used to mean “destroy completely in battle” — an experience that surely left the defeated armies feeling something more than mere discomfort. Some scholars have suggested that the contemporary meaning of discomfit arose due to confusion with the word discomfort. Don’t be discomfited by choosing the wrong word; use this word to mean “embarrass.”
Vocabulary lists containing discomfit
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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:
Before June of this year, he had not come out to his parents as gay, and worried the accusations might discomfit his family.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2023
Warhol also embraced camp as a personal style, performing a theatrical effeminacy that equated to a strategic queerness designed to discomfit those among his contemporaries who held him to be "too swish."
From Salon ● Feb. 19, 2022
And the spectacle of nonviolent suffering in a just cause had the potential to discomfit witnesses and render violent and intimidating reprisals less effective.
From Scientific American ● Feb. 3, 2021
But if Mr. Torn’s performance is meant to discomfit us in the same way Swan’s performances discomfited them, I’m not sure the equivalence is a justification.
From New York Times ● May 2, 2019
Stella with her dogs and trees behind her, with her green acres all round her and the very wind fighting for her, might yet have found it difficult to discomfit Sylvia.
From Sinister Street, vol. 2 by Compton MacKenzie
The company’s trajectory is unlikely to change as long as uncertainty over the deal discomfits advertisers, the main source of Twitter’s revenue.
From New York Times ● Jul. 12, 2022
But in all dealings with Saudi Arabia, Mr. Biden should stand by the principles that Khashoggi so passionately cared for, however much it discomfits the pouty monarch in Riyadh.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 25, 2022
Whatever it meant in the past, and however it discomfits the present, the Aeneid has, alas, always anticipated the future.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 8, 2018
“Little Panic” grips and discomfits in the best way.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2018
Then said Thersitês, in his beard: "Certainly Pelidês has learned from history with what weapon a strong man discomfits the Philistines."
From Jurgen A Comedy of Justice by James Branch Cabell
It felt a bit like being in a group therapy session in which you alone are the primary and discomfited focus.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 22, 2026
I came away from “Notes to John” feeling discomfited and saddened — though literary scholars may read it as providing context with which to deconstruct a great writer’s oeuvre.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2025
A discomfited Scheffler could not sustain his challenge and Xander Schauffele capitalised to land his first major.
From BBC ● Dec. 23, 2024
Easily discomfited when danced into corners from which the only escape is introspection.
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2024
Robin Hood and his merry men discomfited the Sheriff of Nottingham.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
Either way, the onetime roommates and bandmates pioneered a discomfiting broken-doll aesthetic of smudged eyeliner, smeared lipstick and plastic barrettes clipped to hanks of bleached-out hair.
From Salon ● Jun. 12, 2026
There is, therefore, a discomfiting sense of voyeurism.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 8, 2026
The author says Prescott was in a "class of his own when it came to discomfiting Charles".
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2025
This second rationale is discomfiting because it appears to target speech on the basis of its content, which is rarely permitted under the First Amendment.
From Slate ● Jan. 17, 2025
The nested Pythagorean solids also made no allowance for the existence of the Earth’s moon, and Galileo’s discovery of the four large moons of Jupiter was also discomfiting.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
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.
