Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To make uneasy or perplexed; disconcert. synonym: embarrass.
  • transitive verb Archaic To defeat in battle; vanquish.
  • noun Archaic Discomfiture.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Rout; defeat; discomfiture.
  • To foil or thwart in battle; overcome completely in fighting; defeat; rout.
  • To disconcert; foil; frustrate the plans of; throw into perplexity and dejection.
  • Synonyms Overpower, Rout, etc. See defeat.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Discomfited; overthrown.
  • noun Rout; overthrow; discomfiture.
  • transitive verb To scatter in fight; to put to rout; to defeat.
  • transitive verb To break up and frustrate the plans of; to balk� to throw into perplexity and dejection; to disconcert.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb archaic To defeat completely; to rout.
  • verb To defeat the plans or hopes of; to frustrate.
  • verb proscribed To embarrass greatly; to confuse; to perplex; to disconcert.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb cause to lose one's composure

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English discomfiten, from Old French desconfit, past participle of desconfire, descumfire, to defeat : des-, dis- + confire, to make (from Latin cōnficere, to prepare; see comfit).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French desconfit, past participle of desconfire ("to undo, to destroy"), from des- ("completely"), from Latin dis- + confire ("to make"), from Latin conficio ("to finish up, to destroy"), from com- ("with, together") + facio ("to do, to make").

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Examples

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  • "A budding British cook died last week after eating his own spicy tomato sauce, the London Times reports. Andrew Lee, 33, challenged his girlfriend’s brother to a contest, arriving with a jar of the sauce, made with chilies his father had grown. After eating it, he felt itchy and discomfited, and fell asleep while his girlfriend scratched his back. The next morning he was dead."

    - 'UK Cook Eats Own Hot Sauce, Dies', newser.com, 29 Sep 2008.

    September 30, 2008

  • Wow. That's discomfited, all right.

    September 30, 2008

  • Perhaps she scratched too hard.

    September 30, 2008