discomfit
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɪsˈkʌmfɪt/
Forms: form: discomfits
form: discomfiting
form: discomfitting
form: discomfited
form: discomfited
form: discomfitted
form: discomfitted
Etymology: From Old French desconfit, past participle of desconfire (“to undo, to destroy”), from des- (“completely”), from Latin dis- + confire (“to make”), from Latin conficio (“to finish up, to destroy”), from com- (“with, together”) + facio (“to do, to make”).
Later sense of “to embarrass, to disconcert” due to confusion with unrelated discomfort.
Senses: examples: text: Don't worry. Your joke did not really discomfit me.
text: The Captain, with a half-guilty secret to confess, and with the prospect of a painful and stormy interview before him, entered Mr. Osborne's offices with a most dismal countenance and abashed gait, and, passing through the outer room where Mr. Chopper presided, was greeted by that functionary from his desk with a waggish air which farther discomfited him.
ref: 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “In which Mr. Osborne Takes Down the Family Bible”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 198:
text: She is a pretty, silly girl: but are you apprehensive that her titter will discomfit the old lady?
ref: 1853 January, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “The Concert”, in Villette. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 111:
text: Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, pages 69–70:
text: After discomfiting her tormentors or wounding and scattering them, she would return to my side. …
ref: 1915, Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in A Far Country, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, section 1, page 46:
synonyms: word: abash
word: disconcert
word: abase
word: abash
word: bring low
word: confuse
word: confound
word: debase
word: degrade
word: demean
word: depress
word: disconcert
word: discomfit
word: embarrass
word: humble
word: humiliate
word: lower
word: mortify
word: put to shame
word: shame
glosses: To embarrass (someone) greatly; to confuse; to perplex; to disconcert.
examples: text: In these disguises, Maitland argued, he would certainly avoid recognition, and so discomfit any mischief planned by the enemies of Margaret.
ref: 1886, Andrew Lang, chapter 10, in The Mark Of Cain:
synonyms: foil
thwart
glosses: To defeat the plans or hopes of; to frustrate; disconcert.
examples: text: Claudius therefore leauing this Ile, paſſed into Pomonia the chiefeſt of all the Orkenies, where diſcomfiting ſuch as appeared abroad to make reſiſtance, he beſieged the king of thoſe Iles named Ganus, within a caſtell where he was withdrawen, [...]
ref: 1585, John Hooker, “The Historie of Scotland, […]”, in The Second Volume of the Chronicles: […], London: […] Iohn Harison, George Bishop, Rafe Newberie, Henrie Denham, and Thomas Woodcocke, published January 1587, →OCLC, page 46, column 1:
text: And Joſhua diſcomfited Amalek, and his people, with the edge of the ſword.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 17:13, column 1:
text: And his proud foes discomfit in victorious field.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 31:
synonyms: overthrow
vanquish
glosses: To defeat completely; to rout.
Derived terms: undiscomfited
Related terms: discomfiture
discomfort