Definition of "confound"
confound
verb
third-person singular simple present confounds, present participle confounding, simple past and past participle confounded
Quotations
The fightback when it came was in the [Roger] Federer fashion: unfussy, filled with classy strokes from the back with perfectly timed interventions at the net that confounded his opponent. The third set passed in a bit of a blur, the fourth, which led to the second tie-break, was the most dramatic of the match.
2012 June 29, Kevin Mitchell, “Roger Federer back from Wimbledon 2012 brink to beat Julien Benneteau”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 15 November 2016
To fail to see the difference; to mix up; to confuse right and wrong.
Quotations
Hey who lesse seriously consider the force of words, doe sometimes confound Law with Counsell, sometimes with Covenant, sometimes with Right. They confound Law with Counsell, who think, that it is the duty of Monarchs not onely to give ear to their Counsellours, but also to obey them, as though it were in vaine to take Counsell, unlesse it were also followed.
1651 (Latin edition 1642), Thomas Hobbes, De Cive (Latin title) Philosophicall Rudiments Concerning Government and Society (English)
(sometimes proscribed) To make something worse.
Quotations
While she had obeyed him, smiling sweetly all the time, she had nursed a growing resentment of what she called his "Latin American macho attitude." To confound the problem, his mother, who lived with them on and off, was described by the wife as being as domineering as her son.
1983, Carol M. Anderson, Susan Stewart, Mastering Resistance: A Practical Guide to Family Therapy
To defeat, to frustrate, to thwart.
Quotations
I am now, in order the better to confound your politics, going to give you a true account of the means we intend to use, and of the rules, signs, and pass-words of our new United Irish Society Lodge A. 1.—They are so simple that you will never believe them.
1848 February 12, John Mitchel, The United Irishman, Letter to Lord Clarendon
(dated) To damn (a mild oath).
Quotations
"Number 43 is no better, Doctor," said the head-warder, in a slightly reproachful accent, looking in round the corner of my door."Confound 43!" I responded from behind the pages of the Australian Sketcher.
1882, Arthur Conan Doyle, “My Friend the Murderer”, in The Gully of Bluemansdyke and Other Stories
(archaic) To destroy, ruin, or devastate; to bring to ruination.
Quotations
To mortal men, he with his horrid crew / Lay vanquiſht, rowling in the fiery Gulfe / Confounded though immortal: But his doom […]
1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, lines 51–53
Imagine twenty thouſand of them breaking into the midſt of an European Army, confounding the Ranks, overturning the Carriages, battering the Warriors Faces into Mummy, by terrible Yerks from their hinder Hoofs.
1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author’s Veracity. His Design in Publishing this Work. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 345
noun
plural confounds
(statistics) A confounding variable.
Quotations
The participants certainly differ in how their practice is distributed (1, 2, or 3 days), but they also differ in how much total practice they get (3, 6, or 9 hours). This is a perfect example of a confound—it is impossible to tell if the results are due to one factor (distribution of practice) or the other (total practice hours); the two factors covary perfectly.
2009, C. James Goodwin, Research In Psychology: Methods and Design, John Wiley & Sons, page 175