From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishconfoundcon‧found /kənˈfaʊnd/ verb [transitive] 1 SURPRISEDto confuse and surprise people by being unexpected His amazing recovery confounded the medical specialists.2 to prove someone or something wrongconfound the critics/pundits/experts etc United’s new striker confounded the critics with his third goal in as many games.3 formalBEAT/DEFEAT to defeat an enemy, plan etc4 formalNOT KNOW if a problem etc confounds you, you cannot understand it or solve it Her question completely confounded me.5 → confound it/him/them etc→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
confound• I think they are absolutely confounding.• Henry Kissinger was also confounded and frustrated by the Communists during his secret negotiations with them.• Even travel agents are confounded by the logic of airline ticket pricing.• The traditional monument has tended to confound gender politics.• The close score after 12 games confounds pre-match predictions that Kasparov would win this time by a large margin.• He has utilized the pictorial logic of the photograph to confound rather than to clarify space.• Dan's speedy recovery confounded the medical experts.• The simple memory span measure confounds these variables.• Parental education will be confounded with social class and it is therefore important to consider them jointly.confound the critics/pundits/experts etc• Thus did ordinary children confound the experts.Origin confound (1200-1300) Old French confondre “to ruin, destroy”, from Latin confundere “to pour together, confuse”, from com- ( → COM-) + fundere “to pour” 