confuse

present singular third person confuses · participle present confusing · participle past confused · past confused

1. transitiveTo puzzle, perplex, baffle, bewilder (somebody); to afflict by being complicated, contradictory, or otherwise difficult to understand.

   It confused me when I went to the office and nobody was there, but then I realised it was Sunday.

   2 more examples

   "What confuses me is how other insurance companies knew about it," said Zhang, a 26-year-old government employee from Shandong.

   2018 August 23, Engen Tham, “Data dump: China sees surge in personal information up for sale”, in Reuters

   President Donald Trump’s offer to most federal employees to resign now and be paid through September stunned the workers who received it – angering some, confusing many and raising questions about whether the offer is even legal.

   2025 February 1, Tami Luhby, Eric Bradner and Rene Marsh, “Federal employees confused, angered by Trump’s offer to quit”, in CNN

2. transitiveTo mix up, muddle up (one thing with another); to mistake (one thing for another).

   People who say "hola" to Italians are confusing Italian with Spanish.

   1 more example

   Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Saturday questioned Donald Trump’s mental fitness after he appeared to confuse her with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when talking about the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. […] “They’re saying he got confused. That he was talking about something else. That he was talking about Nancy Pelosi. He mentioned me multiples times in that scenario,” the former South Carolina governor added.

   2024 January 20, Ebony Davis, “Haley questions Trump’s mental fitness after he confuses her with Nancy Pelosi”, in CNN

3. transitiveTo mix thoroughly; to confound; to disorder.

   The dense fog utterly confused traffic on the highway.

4. datedtransitiveTo make uneasy and ashamed; to embarrass.
5. obsoletetransitiveTo rout; discomfit.
6. intransitiveTo be confused.

comparative more confuse · superlative most confuse

1. obsoleteSynonym of confused.

   The 11. article is ſo confuſe that it is harde to bring it into any certeine numbre of demandes.

   1577, William Fulke, “An Answer of a True Christian to a Counterfait Catholike”, in Two Treatises Written against the Papistes, […], London: […] Thomas Thomas Vautrollier […], →OCLC, page 34

   3 more examples

   Moꝛe ouer take away oꝛdre from all thynges / what ſhulde than remayne? certes nothynge finally / except ſome man wolde imagine eftſones / Chaos: whiche of ſome is expounde a cõfuse mixture: […]

   1531, Thomas Elyot, “The Signification of a Publike Weale / and Why It Is Called in Latin Respublica”, in The Boke Named the Governour […], London: […] Tho[mas] Bertheleti, →OCLC, 1st boke, folio 2, verso

   [T]he moſt laudable languages are alwaies moſt plaine and diſtinct, and the barbarous moſt confuſe and indiſtinct: […]

   1589, [George Puttenham], “Of Cesure”, in The Arte of English Poesie. […], London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC, book II (The Second Booke, of Proportion Poetical), page 61

   It was all one with them to ſay, in a confuſe general way, either that the Holy Ghoſt ſanctiſied the Receivers, in the uſe of the outward Symbols, or that He ſanctified the Symbols to their uſe: […]

   1737, Daniel Waterland, “Of the Consecration of the Elements of Bread and Wine in the Holy Communion”, in A Review of the Doctrine of the Eucharist, as Laid Down in Scripture and Antiquity, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Corn[elius] Crownfield, Printer to the University, and W[illiam] Innys […], →OCLC, page 127

   Synonyms: confused