confounded

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kənˈfaʊndɪd/
• Hyphenation: con‧found‧ed

Verb

confounded

1. simple past and past participle of confound
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VI, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 124:

     Here Mrs. Higgs paused for a moment, and drew out a huge red pocket-handkerchief, with which her face was for some minutes confounded.

Adjective

confounded (comparative more confounded, superlative most confounded)

1. confused, astonished
2. defeated, thwarted
   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I, lines 50–3:

     Nine times the Space that measures Day and Night
     To mortal men, he with his horrid crew
     Lay vanquisht, rowling in the fiery Gulfe
     Confounded though immortal: […]

3. damned, accursed, bloody

   The confounded thing doesn't work.

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 177:

     "This is all stuff and nonsense," said the king; "I shall have to go myself, if we are to get this confounded whistle from him."

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 202:

     Some confounded fact we men have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up and knock the whole thing over.

Derived terms

• confoundedly
• confoundedness
• unconfounded

 

Translations

confused

• Bulgarian: объркан (bg) (obǎrkan), смутен (bg) (smuten)
• Catalan: confós m
• French: confondu (fr) m
• German: verwechselt (de), durcheinander (de), verwirrt (de)
• Ido: konfundata
• Norwegian: konfus (no)

  Bokmål: forvirret (no)

• Persian: مبهوت (fa) (mabhut)
• Russian: сбитый с толку (sbityj s tolku)
• Spanish: confundido (es)
• Swedish: förvirrad (sv)
• Turkish: kafası karışmış, şaşırmış

defeated

• Catalan: confós m
• German: besiegt (de), überwunden (de)
• Spanish: confundido (es)

damned

• German: verdammt (de), verflucht (de)
• Spanish: condenado (es), maldito (es), execrable (es), desgraciado (es), odioso (es), detestable (es)

References

• “confounded”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• deconfound