Definition of "confounded"

Here Mrs. Higgs paused for a moment, and drew out a huge red pocket-handkerchief, with which her face was for some minutes confounded.

1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VI, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], page 124

Nine times the Space that measures Day and NightTo mortal men, he with his horrid crewLay vanquisht, rowling in the fiery GulfeConfounded though immortal: […]

1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I, lines 50–3

"This is all stuff and nonsense," said the king; "I shall have to go myself, if we are to get this confounded whistle from him."

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 177

Some confounded fact we men have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up and knock the whole thing over.

1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], part I, page 202