Adjacent Words

Confuse definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CONFUSE, v.t. [L. See Confound.]
1. To mix or blend things, so that they cannot be distinguished.
Stunning sounds and voices all confused.
Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise. Isaiah 9.
2. To disorder; as, a sudden alarm confused the troops; a careless bookkeeper has confused the accounts.
3. To perplex; to render indistinct; as, the clamor confused his ideas.
4. To throw the mind into disorder; to cast down or abash; to cause to blush; to agitate by surprise, or shame; to disconcert.
A sarcastic remark confused the gentleman and he could not proceed in his argument.
Confused and sadly she at length replied.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: mistake one thing for another; "you are confusing me with the other candidate"; "I mistook her for the secretary" [syn: confuse, confound]
2: be confusing or perplexing to; cause to be unable to think clearly; "These questions confuse even the experts"; "This question completely threw me"; "This question befuddled even the teacher" [syn: confuse, throw, fox, befuddle, fuddle, bedevil, confound, discombobulate]
3: cause to feel embarrassment; "The constant attention of the young man confused her" [syn: confuse, flurry, disconcert, put off]
4: assemble without order or sense; "She jumbles the words when she is supposed to write a sentence" [syn: jumble, confuse, mix up]
5: make unclear, indistinct, or blurred; "Her remarks confused the debate"; "Their words obnubilate their intentions" [syn: confuse, blur, obscure, obnubilate]

Merriam Webster's

transitive verb (confused; confusing) Etymology: back-formation from Middle English confused frustrated, ruined, from Anglo-French confus, from Latin confusus, past participle of confundere Date: 14th century 1. archaic to bring to ruin 2. a. to make embarrassed ; abash b. to disturb in mind or purpose ; throw off 3. a. to make indistinct ; blur <stop confusing the issue> b. to mix indiscriminately ; jumble c. to fail to differentiate from an often similar or related other <confuse money with comfort> • confusingly adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. 1 a disconcert, perplex, bewilder. b embarrass. 2 mix up in the mind; mistake (one for another). 3 make indistinct (that point confuses the issue). 4 (as confused adj.) mentally decrepit. 5 (often as confused adj.) throw into disorder (a confused jumble of clothes). Derivatives: confusedly adv. confusing adj. confusingly adv. Etymology: 19th-c. back-form. f. confused (14th c.) f. OF confus f. L confusus: see confound

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Confuse Con*fuse", a. [F. confus, L. confusus, p. p. of confundere. See Confound.] Mixed; confounded. [Obs.] --Baret.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Confuse Con*fuse", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Confused; p. pr. & vb. n. Confusing.] 1. To mix or blend so that things can not be distinguished; to jumble together; to confound; to render indistinct or obscure; as, to confuse accounts; to confuse one's vision. A universal hubbub wild Of stunning sounds and voices all confused. --Milton. 2. To perplex; to disconcert; to abash; to cause to lose self-possession. Nor thou with shadowed hint confuse A life that leads melodious days. --Tennyson. Confused and sadly she at length replied. --Pope. Syn: To abash; disorder; disarrange; disconcert; confound; obscure; distract. See Abash.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(confuses, confusing, confused) 1. If you confuse two things, you get them mixed up, so that you think one of them is the other one. Great care is taken to avoid confusing the two types of projects... I can't see how anyone could confuse you with another! VERB: V pl-n, V n with n • confusion Use different colours of felt pen on your sketch to avoid confusion. 2. To confuse someone means to make it difficult for them to know exactly what is happening or what to do. German politics surprised and confused him. VERB: V n 3. To confuse a situation means to make it complicated or difficult to understand. To further confuse the issue, there is an enormous variation in the amount of sleep people feel happy with. VERB: V n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. 1. Mingle, intermingle, mix, blend, confound. 2. Disorder, disarrange, derange, disturb, jumble, throw into disorder or confusion. 3. Perplex, obscure, darken, render uncertain. 4. Mystify, embarrass, pose, nonplus, bewilder, flurry. 5. Abash, shame, mortify, discompose, disconcert, confound.

Moby Thesaurus

abash, addle, addle the wits, agitate, baffle, ball up, becloud, bedazzle, befog, befuddle, bemuse, bewilder, blur, blur distinctions, bollix up, botch, bother, buffalo, bug, cap, cast down, chagrin, cloud, color, complicate, confound, daze, dazzle, deform, derange, disarrange, discombobulate, discomfit, discompose, disconcert, discountenance, dishevel, dismay, disorder, disorganize, disorient, disquiet, distort, distract, disturb, dizzy, embarrass, embrangle, ensnarl, entangle, faze, flummox, flurry, fluster, flutter, fog, fog up, foul up, fuddle, fumble, fuss, fuzz, garble, implicate, involve, jumble, jumble together, knock galley-west, knot, louse up, make uncertain, maze, mess up, miscolor, misdeem, misguide, misidentify, mislead, mist, mix, mix up, mizzle, moider, mortify, muck up, muddle, muddy, mull, mystify, obfuscate, obscure, overlook distinctions, perplex, perturb, pervert, pi, play hob with, pose, pother, put out, puzzle, raise hell, ramify, rattle, ravel, riffle, ruffle, scramble, screw up, shame, shuffle, snafu, snarl, snarl up, stumble, tangle, throw, throw into confusion, throw off, throw out, tumble, twist, unform, unsettle, unshape, upset, warp, wrench, wrest