Confute - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

con·fute

Audio Help [kuh

n-fyoot] Pronunciation Key

–verb (used with object), -fut·ed, -fut·ing.

1.	to prove to be false, invalid, or defective; disprove: to confute an argument.

2.	to prove (a person) to be wrong by argument or proof: to confute one's opponent.

3.	Obsolete. to bring to naught; confound.

[Origin: 1520–30; < L confūtāre to abash, silence, refute, equiv. to con- con- + -fūtāre; cf. refute

]

—Related forms

con·fut·a·ble, adjective

con·fut·er, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Confute

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

con·fute Audio Help (kən-fyōōt') Pronunciation Key
tr.v. con·fut·ed, con·fut·ing, con·futes

To prove to be wrong or in error; refute decisively.
Obsolete To confound.

[Latin cōnfūtāre; see bhau- in Indo-European roots.]

con·fut'a·ble adj., con·fu'ta·tive (kən-fyōō'tə-tĭv) adj., con·fut'er n.

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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
confute

1529, from L. confutare "disprove, restrain, silence," from com- intensive prefix + *futare "to beat," from PIE base *bhau-t, *bhu-t "to strike, beat."

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

confute
verb
prove to be false; "The physicist disproved his colleagues' theories" [syn: disprove] [ant: demonstrate]

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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."

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confute

confute was Word of the Day on August 8, 2002.

Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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