Word forms: 3rd person singular presenttense confounds, present participle confounding, past tense, past participle confounded
verb
If someone or something confounds you, they make you feel surprised or confused, often by showing you that your opinions or expectations of them were wrong.
He momentarily confounded his critics by his cool handling of the hostage crisis. [VERB noun]
The choice of Governor may confound us all. [VERB noun]
More Synonyms of confound
confound in British English
(kənˈfaʊnd)
verb(transitive)
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. (kɒnˈfaʊnd)
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
Derived forms
confoundable (conˈfoundable)
adjective
confounder (conˈfounder)
noun
Word origin
C13: from Old French confondre, from Latin confundere to mingle, pour together, from fundere to pour
confound in American English
(kənˈfaʊnd; for 3, usually ˈkɑnfaʊnd)
verb transitive
1.
to mix up or lump together indiscriminately; confuse
2.
to make feel confused; bewilder
3.
to damn
used as a mild oath
4. Archaic
to defeat or destroy
5. Archaic
to abash
SIMILAR WORDS: ˈpuzzle
Word origin
ME confouṅden < OFr confondre < L confundere, to pour together, confuse < com-, together + fundere, to pour: see UNRESOLVED CROSS REF
Examples of 'confound' in a sentence
confound
These and many individual experiences prove that human beings often confound expectations.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
Oil prices have often confounded economic forecasters.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
But these terms are often confounded and are taken one for the other.
Kishlansky, Mark A. (editor) Sources of the West: Readings in Western Civilization, Volume 1: From the Beginningto 1715 (1995)
Why have those early predictions been confounded?
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
The scale and pace of technological progress continues to confound predictions.
Tom Cannon Basic Marketing. Principles and Practice (1986)
It is one of the real pleasures of the lower leagues that expectations are very often confounded in the most dramatic of manners.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
So to confound sceptics, this week offers two outstanding dramas.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
More importantly, it was the confounding of all sceptics.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
They confuse and they confound.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
No one has lost money in recent times betting that Britain's house prices will confound predictions of gloom and keep motoring ahead.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
In other languages
confound
British English: confound VERB
If someone or something confounds you, they make you feel surprised or confused, often by showing you that your opinions or expectations of them were wrong.
He momentarily confounded his critics by his cool handling of the crisis.
American English: confound
Brazilian Portuguese: desconcertar
Chinese: 使吃惊
European Spanish: confundir
French: confondre
German: verblüffen
Italian: sconcertare
Japanese: 困惑させる
Korean: 난처하게 하다
European Portuguese: desconcertar
Latin American Spanish: confundir
1 (verb)
Definition
to astound or bewilder
For many years medical scientists were confounded by these seemingly contradictory facts.
Synonyms
bewilder
The silence from her sister had hurt and bewildered her.
baffle
An apple tree producing square fruit is baffling experts.
amaze
He amazed us with his knowledge of local history.
confuse
Politics just confuses me.
astonish
Her dedication astonishes me.
startle
mix up
astound
He used to astound us with feats of physical endurance.
perplex
problems that perplexed me
surprise
We'll solve the case ourselves and surprise everyone.
mystify
There was something strange in her attitude that mystified me.
flummox
This system has the potential to flummox most car thieves.
boggle the mind
be all Greek to (informal)
dumbfound
The question dumbfounded him.
nonplus
flabbergast (informal)
2 (verb)
The findings confound all the government's predictions.
Synonyms
disprove
The statistics disprove his hypothesis.
contradict
The result appears to contradict a major study carried out last December.
refute
It was the kind of rumour that is impossible to refute.
negate
I can neither negate nor affirm this claim.
destroy
The team destroyed their opponents in a one-sided game.
ruin
Roads have been destroyed and crops ruined.
overwhelm
One massive assault would overwhelm the weakened enemy.
explode
He explodes the myth that actors are bubble-headed egomaniacs.