discomfit
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discomfit
- /dɪsˈkʌmfɪt/
Where it comes from
From Middle English discomfiten, from Old French desconfit, past participle of desconfire (“to undo, to destroy”), from des- (“completely”), from Latin dis- + Old French confire (“to make”), from Latin cōnficiō (“to finish up, to destroy”), from com- (“with, together”) + faciō (“to do, to make”).
Later sense of “to embarrass, to disconcert” due to confusion with unrelated discomfort.
verb discomfits · discomfiting · discomfitting · discomfited · discomfitted
- To embarrass (someone) greatly; to confuse; to perplex; to disconcert. Don't worry. Your joke did not really discomfit me.
- To defeat the plans or hopes of; to frustrate; disconcert. In these disguises, Maitland argued, he would certainly avoid recognition, and so discomfit any mischief planned by the enemies of Margaret.
- To defeat completely; to rout. 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, [...]
