Adjacent Words

Confute definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CONFUTE, v.t. [L.]
1. To disprove; to prove to be false, defective or invaled; to overthrow; as, to confute arguments, reasoning, theory, error.
2. To prove to be wrong; to convict of error, by argument or proof; as, to confute an advocate at the bar; to confute a writer.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: prove to be false; "The physicist disproved his colleagues' theories" [syn: disprove, confute] [ant: demonstrate, establish, prove, shew, show]

Merriam Webster's

transitive verb (confuted; confuting) Etymology: Latin confutare to check, silence Date: 1529 1. to overwhelm in argument ; refute conclusively <Elijah…confuted the prophets of Baal — G. B. Shaw> 2. obsolete confound • confuter noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. 1 prove (a person) to be in error. 2 prove (an argument) to be false. Derivatives: confutation n. Etymology: L confutare restrain

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Confute Con*fute, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Confuted; p. pr. & vb. n. Confuting.] [L. confutare to chek (a boiling liquid), to repress, confute; con- + a root seen in futis a water vessel), prob. akin to fundere to pour: cf. F. confuter. See Fuse to melt.] To overwhelm by argument; to refute conclusively; to prove or show to be false or defective; to overcome; to silence. Satan stood . . . confuted and convinced Of his weak arguing fallacious drift. --Milton. No man's error can be confuted who doth not . . . grant some true principle that contradicts his error. --Chillingworth. I confute a good profession with a bad conversation. --Fuller. Syn: To disprove; overthrow; sed aside; refute; oppugn. Usage: To Confute, Refute. Refute is literally to and decisive evidence; as, to refute a calumny, charge, etc. Confute is literally to check boiling, as when cold water is poured into hot, thus serving to allay, bring down, or neutralize completely. Hence, as applied to arguments (and the word is never applied, like refute, to charges), it denotes, to overwhelm by evidence which puts an end to the case and leaves an opponent nothing to say; to silence; as, ``the atheist is confuted by the whole structure of things around him.''

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. 1. Overthrow (by argument), overcome (in debate), convict of error, put to silence, silence. 2. Disprove, refute, prove to be false.

Moby Thesaurus

answer, answer conclusively, antagonize, argue down, be antipathetic, be inimical, beat against, break, clash, collide, conflict, conflict with, confound, contradict, contrapose, contravene, controvert, counter, counteract, counterattack, countercharge, counterclaim, counterpose, countervail, counterwork, cross, crush, defeat, demolish, deny, disconfirm, dismiss, dispose of, evert, finish, floor, go against, go counter to, interfere with, lock horns, make a rebuttal, meet head-on, militate against, nonplus, oppose, oppugn, overthrow, overturn, overwhelm, parry, put to silence, rebut, reduce to silence, refute, rejoin, resist, run against, run counter to, settle, shut up, silence, smash all opposition, squash, squelch, subvert, surrebut, surrejoin, swim upstream, undermine, upset, work against