| 释义 |
▪ I. † confuse, n. Obs. rare
[app. a. OF. confus confusion:—L. type *confūsus, f. confundĕre: cf. F. refus.]
Confusion.
1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 114/3 Contynuel drede in hys confuse. a1562G. Cavendish Life Wolsey (1827) 75 The king being in a great confuse and wonder of his hasty speed.
▪ II. † confuse, a. Obs.
Also 4–5 confus.
[ME. confus, a. OF. confus, -use (= Pr. confus, Sp. and It. confuso):—L. confūs-us, pa. pple. of confund-ĕre to confound.]
1. Of persons: Confounded, disconcerted, abashed, perplexed. Used both as pass. pple., and adj. = confused 2.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. xi. 93 He bi-com so confoundet [v.r. confus, confuse] he couþe not mele And as doumbe as a dore. c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1372, I am so confus, that I may not seye. c1430Lydg. Bochas i. viii. (1544) 15 a, Ashamed and confuse of this dede. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 162/2 His uncle departed al confus. 1600F. Walker Sp. Mandeville 135 a, It maketh me confuse and wauering.
2. Confusedly mixed, promiscuous; disorderly, marked by confusion; = confused 3.
c1384Chaucer H. Fame iii. 427 A ful confuse matere. 1531Elyot Gov. i. i, Chaos: whiche of some is expounde a confuse mixture. 1590H. Barrow in Greenwood Collect. Sland. Art. D iiij, It consisteth of a confuse multitude of all sorts of people. 1712E. Cooke Voy. S. Sea 407 The Circumstances..are very confuse and improbable.
b. Blended so that the distinction of elements is lost; = confused 4.
1655W. F. Meteors iii. 82 The milke way..was nothing else but innumerable little Starres, which with their confuse light, caused that whitnesse.
c. = confused 5.
c1568Fulke Two Treat. i. (1577) 34 The 11. article is so confuse that it is harde to bring it into any certeine numbre of demandes. 1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. (Arb.) 87 The most laudable languages are alwaies most plaine..and the barbarous most confuse and indistinct. 1633Ames Agst. Cerem. ii. 17 His confuse aequivocall terme of Ceremonie. 1698Norris Treat. on Sev. Subj. 114 If we had not..a confuse Perception of them. 1737Waterland Eucharist 127 To say, in a confuse general way.
▪ III. confuse, v.|kənˈfjuːz|
[A passive pple. confused is found from 14th c.; but the present stem and active voice are only of modern use, having been formerly expressed by confound: cf. F. confondre, confus, L. confundĕre, confūsus. The vb. is entered by Bailey (folio) 1730–6, and thence by Johnson, but there are no examples, exc. of the pa. pple., in J., Todd, or Richardson. The pple. was thus evidently an English adaptation of F. confus or L. confus-us, with the native ppl. ending -ed, and the present stem a much later inference from it.
Hence, it may be said that confound had formerly 3 pa. pples., confuse, confused, confounded; the first two only passive, the last used also in forming the perfect active: of these confuse became at last solely an adjective; confused has given origin to a separate verb, confuse, of which it is now the pa. pple.; confounded remains the sole pa. pple. of confound.]
†1. trans. To discomfit, to rout, to bring to ruin; = confound 1. Only in pass. Obs.
c1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 304 Confused þei went away þat fals companie. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xxiv. 112 Alssone ȝe schall be confused and schent and destruyd.
2. To discomfit in mind or feelings; to abash, disconcert, put to shame; to distract, perplex, bewilder; = confound 3, 4. Till 19th c. only pass.
c1350St. Brice 32 in Horstmann O.E. Leg. ii. 156 And he was all confused for schame. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xxiv. 110 He went fra þam schamed and confused. 1485Caxton Paris & V. (1868) 37, I am half confused. 1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. xxxviii. 52 Wherof Loys..was so confused, that he wold no more returne agayne into Brabant. 1712–4Pope Rape Lock iii. 145 Amaz'd, confus'd, he found his pow'r expir'd. 1728Chetwood Adv. Capt. R. Boyle 72, I was so very much confus'd and frighten'd.
active.1805Med. Jrnl. XIV. 547 Those various combinations..are sufficient to confuse a weaker mind. 1850Tennyson In Mem. xvi, Or has the shock..Confused me like the unhappy bark.
3. To throw into disorder or confusion; to disorder; = confound 5. Till 19th c. only pass.
1635N. R. Camden's Hist. Eliz. i. viii. 65 Sidney..found Munster the..most confused. 1728Chetwood Adv. Capt. R. Boyle 34 They were all confus'd like a Skein of Silk pull'd the wrong way. 1732Pope Ess. Man ii. 13 Chaos of Thought and Passion, all confus'd.
active.1861Wright Ess. Archæol. I. vi. 86 He has done more to confuse and mystify the subject than to clear it up. 1861Dickens Lett. (1880) II. 146, I fear I might confuse your arrangements by interfering.
4. To mix up or mingle so that it becomes impossible or difficult to distinguish the elements; = confound 6. Only pass.
1550Cranmer Defence 48 b, In euery parte of the bread & wyne is altogither, whole head, whole feete..confused and mixte withoute distinction or diuersitie. 1552Huloet, Confused or myxt together, promiscuus. 1586Bright Melanch. xiii. 69 Diverse qualities..not confused together in one, against nature. 1612Woodall Surgeon's Mate Wks. (1653) 269 Liquid things (as wax, rosin, pitch, etc.) may likewise be confused, but by Eliquation. 1819W. Lawrence Lect. Physiol. (1822) 282 A thick nose, confused on either side with the projecting cheeks. 1834Medwin Angler in Wales II. 256 Their arms, legs, and bodies were confused together [in a struggle].
5. To mix up in the mind, to fail to distinguish, erroneously regard as identical, mistake one for another; = confound 7.
1862Ruskin Munera P. (1880) 29 We in reality confuse wealth with money. 1882J. H. Blunt Ref. Ch. Eng. II. 441 Catena seems here to confuse the dates of events.
6. intr. (rare.)
a. (for refl.) To become confused or indistinct.
b. To fail to distinguish (between).
1816Byron Let. to Moore in Elze Life v. 139, I find them fading, or confusing (if such a word may be) in my memory. 1885Pall Mall G. 13 July 5/2 He confuses between the Flossgraben and the ditches of the Leipsic road. |