| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| discomfit |
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| SYLLABICATION: | dis·com·fit |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  d s-k m ft |
| TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: dis·com·fit·ed, dis·com·fit·ing, dis·com·fits
1. To make uneasy or perplexed; disconcert. See synonyms at embarrass. 2. To thwart the plans of; frustrate. 3. Archaic To defeat in battle; vanquish. | | NOUN: | Discomfiture. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English discomfiten, from Old French desconfit, past participle of desconfire, descumfire, to defeat : des-, dis- + confire, to make (from Latin c nficere, to prepare; see comfit). | | USAGE NOTE: | It is true that discomfit originally meant “to defeat, frustrate” and that its newer use meaning “to embarrass, disconcert” probably arose in part through confusion with discomfort. But the newer sense is now the most common use of the verb in all varieties of writing and should be considered entirely standard.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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