confound
part of speech
verb (confounds, confounded, confounding)
meaning for a pupil
1) To confound someone is to confuse them so badly that they cannot think clearly. tree →
2) To confound a plan is to defeat it or spoil it. tree →
3) (exclamation) «Confound it!» is an old way of saying «Blast it!» when something goes wrong. tree →
sense in the lessons
In the Tanakh and Jewish tradition: At Babel God confounded the language of the people so they could no longer understand one another. Interpretation: The story is read as explaining why humans speak many languages, and as a warning against pride. The name Babel is linked to the Hebrew word for mixing. In the primary lessons: in the lessons, to mix up the innocent with the guilty, or to baffle and beat an enemy by a trick or fog
examples
- Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.' (Torah GEN.11.7, JPS 1917) tree →
- Therefore was the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth; and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. (Torah GEN.11.9, JPS 1917) tree →
- The puzzle began to confound me. tree →
- The magician's fog was meant to confound the soldiers. tree →
- Do not confound the innocent with the guilty. tree →
- «Confound it!» cried the farmer when his cart stuck in the mud. tree →
note
nothing changes a count, but if you confound two numbers in a sum, the answer will be wrong.
In the corpora
- Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.'
- They shall be ashamed, yea, confounded, all of them; they shall go in confusion together that are makers of idols.
- O Israel, that art saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation; ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.
- We are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.'
- They were ashamed because they had hoped; they came thither, and were confounded.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «confound» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.