discomfit
/dɪsˈkʌmfɪt/
discomfit verb: to embarrass (someone) greatly; to confuse; to perplex; to disconcert.
Verb
discomfit (third-person singular simple present discomfits, present participle discomfiting or (rare) discomfitting, simple past and past participle discomfited or (rare) discomfitted)
- To embarrass (someone) greatly; to confuse; to perplex; to disconcert.
- Don't worry. Your joke did not really discomfit me.
- The Captain, with a half-guilty secret to confess, and with the prospect of a painful and stormy interview before him, entered Mr. Osborne's offices with a most dismal countenance and abashed gait, and, passing through the outer room where Mr. Chopper presided, was greeted by that functionary from...1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “In which Mr. Osborne Takes Down the Family Bible”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 198
- 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.1886, Andrew Lang, chapter 10, in The Mark Of Cain
- 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, [...]1585, John Hooker, “The Historie of Scotland, […]”, in The Second Volume of the Chronicles: […], London: […] Iohn Harison, George Bishop, Rafe Newberie, Henrie Denham, and Thomas Woodcocke, published...
- And Joſhua diſcomfited Amalek, and his people, with the edge of the ſword.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 17:13, column 1
discomfit meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
discomfit in Tamil
- உருக்குலைத்தல், சங்கடப்படுத்துதல், குழப்பமுறச்செய்தல், கடும்தோல்வியுறச்செய்தல், தவிடுப்பொடியாக்குதல்
discomfit in Urdu
- ہرانا, ہزیمت دینا, مار بھگانا, پاؤں اکھاڑنا, الٹ دینا
discomfit in Bengali
- বিভ্রান্ত করা, অস্বস্তিতে ফেলা, কাউকে লজ্জিত, অপ্রস্তুত করা
discomfit in Malayalam
- disconcert, embarras, abash
- പരാഭവം വരുത്തുക, അന്തംവിടുവിക്കുക, ഉളുപ്പു കെടുത്തുക, നാണം കെടുത്തുക, ചിന്താക്കുഴപ്പത്തിലാക്കുക, പരുങ്ങലുളവാക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
- discomfit in Kannada
- ತಡೆ, ಸೋಲಿಸು, ಕಸಿವಿಸಿಗೊಳ್ಳು
Examples of discomfit in a sentence
- Chopper presided, was greeted by that functionary from his desk with a waggish air which farther discomfited him.1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “In which Mr. Osborne Takes Down the Family Bible”, in Vanity Fair […], London...
- She is a pretty, silly girl: but are you apprehensive that her titter will discomfit the old lady?1853 January, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “The Concert”, in Villette. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […]...
- Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company...
- After discomfiting her tormentors or wounding and scattering them, she would return to my side. …1915, Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in A Far Country, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, section 1, page 46:
Synonyms of discomfit
12 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of discomfit
| third-person singular present | discomfits |
|---|---|
| present participle | discomfiting |
| past participle | discomfited |
| past | discomfited |
| present participle (rare) | discomfitting |
| past participle (rare) | discomfitted |
| past (rare) | discomfitted |
Origin of discomfit
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.
Words formed from discomfit
Questions about discomfit
- What does discomfit mean?
- Discomfit means to embarrass (someone) greatly; to confuse; to perplex; to disconcert.
- What is discomfit in Tamil?
- Discomfit in Tamil is உருக்குலைத்தல், சங்கடப்படுத்துதல், குழப்பமுறச்செய்தல். See Discomfit meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use discomfit in a sentence?
- Chopper presided, was greeted by that functionary from his desk with a waggish air which farther discomfited him.
- What part of speech is discomfit?
- Discomfit is a verb.
- How do you pronounce discomfit?
- Discomfit is pronounced /dɪsˈkʌmfɪt/.
- What is the past tense of discomfit?
- The past tense of discomfit is discomfited.
Words near discomfit in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: discomfit (page history and authors); discomfit (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); discomfit (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Discomfit (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); discomfit (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); discomfit (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-discomfit.wav.
Cite this entry: “discomfit.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/discomfit. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.