Word.ws English Dictionary

comfit

/ˈkʌmfɪt/

comfit noun: a confection consisting of a nut, seed or fruit coated with sugar.

Noun (1)

comfit (plural comfits)

  1. A confection consisting of a nut, seed or fruit coated with sugar.
    • Heart! you swear like a comfit-maker's wife.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • "Why, what are they?" she asked, looking at him askance. ¶ "Hashish; did you never hear of it?" ¶ "Oh, yes; it's that Indian stuff which brings one fantastic visions, isn't it? I've always wanted to see and taste it, and now I will," cried Belle, nibbling at one of the bean-shaped comfits with its...1869, Louisa May Alcott, Perilous Play

Verb

comfit (third-person singular simple present comfits, present participle comfiting, simple past and past participle comfited)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To make into a dry sugared confection.
    • 17th c, Abraham Cowley, The First Nemeæan Ode of Pindar: The Muse, 1795, Robert Anderson (editor), The Works of the British Poets, Volume 5, page 302,
      The fruit which does ſo quickly waſte, // Men ſcarce can ſee it, much leſs taſte, // Thou comfiteſt in ſweets to make it laſt.

Noun (2)

IPA/ˈkɒmfɪt/

comfit (plural comfits)

  1. (Australia) A computerised image of a suspect produced for the police force.
    • A black and white comfit of a man with a chin shaped like a spade, doorstop for a nose..2023, Trent Dalton, Lola in the Mirror

Examples of comfit in a sentence

  • I've always wanted to see and taste it, and now I will," cried Belle, nibbling at one of the bean-shaped comfits with its green heart.1869, Louisa May Alcott, Perilous Play:
  • But since I ate your present of comfits—and they were admirable comfits, and I ate them with speed—my heart is changed and inclined toward you, I know not why or how, except it be through magic.1922, James Elroy Flecker, The Story of Hassan of Baghdad and How he Came to Make the Golden Journey to Samarkand, New York: Alfred A....

Forms of comfit

Noun
pluralcomfits
Verb
third-person singular presentcomfits
present participlecomfiting
past participlecomfited
pastcomfited

Origin of comfit

From Old French confit (“preserved fruit”), from Latin cōnfectum. Doublet of confect, confetto, confit, and konfyt. Compare confit.

Acronym, from Computer Facial Identification Techniques.

Words formed from comfit

Questions about comfit

What does comfit mean?
Comfit means a confection consisting of a nut, seed or fruit coated with sugar.
How do you use comfit in a sentence?
I've always wanted to see and taste it, and now I will," cried Belle, nibbling at one of the bean-shaped comfits with its green heart.
What part of speech is comfit?
Comfit can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce comfit?
Comfit is pronounced /ˈkʌmfɪt/.
What is the plural of comfit?
The plural of comfit is comfits.

Words near comfit in the dictionary

  1. comfier
  2. comfies
  3. comfiest
  4. comfily
  5. comfiness
  6. comfit
  7. comfited
  8. comfiting
  9. comfits
  10. comfiture
  11. comfitures

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: comfit (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: EN-AU ck1 comfit.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-comfit.wav.

Cite this entry: “comfit.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/comfit. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.