different between garble vs confuse

English

Etymology

From Middle English garbelen, from Anglo-Norman garbeler (“to sift”), from Medieval Latin garbellare (or a similar Italian word), from Arabic ????????? (?arbala, “to sift”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /????(?)b?l/
• Rhymes: -??(?)b?l

Verb

garble (third-person singular simple present garbles, present participle garbling, simple past and past participle garbled)

1. To pick out such parts (of a text) as may serve a purpose; to mutilate; to pervert
2. To make false by mutilation or addition [from 17th c.]

3. (obsolete) To sift or bolt, to separate the fine or valuable parts of from the coarse and useless parts, or from dross or dirt [14th–19th c.]

Derived terms

• garbley gook

Translations

Noun

garble (countable and uncountable, plural garbles)

1. Confused or unintelligible speech.
   • 1976, Boating (volume 40, numbers 1-2, page 152)

     The FCC says it decided to attempt standardization of VHF receivers after getting "thousands of complaints" from disgruntled boatmen who found their sets brought in mostly a lot of garble and static.

2. (obsolete) Refuse; rubbish.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wolcott to this entry?)

3. (obsolete) Impurities separated from spices, drugs, etc.; garblings.

Further reading

• garble in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• garble in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Gabler, Grable, garbel

English

Etymology

Back formation from Middle English confused ("frustrated, ruined"), from Anglo-Norman confus, from Latin confusus, past participle of confund?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?n?fju?z/
• Rhymes: -u?z

Verb

confuse (third-person singular simple present confuses, present participle confusing, simple past and past participle confused)

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

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

3. (transitive) To mix thoroughly; to confound; to disorder.
4. (transitive, dated) To make uneasy and ashamed; to embarrass.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To rout; discomfit.
6. (intransitive) To be confused.

Synonyms

• flummox
• mistake
• See also Thesaurus:confuse

Related terms

• confused
• confusing
• confusion

Translations

See also

• discombobulate

References

• confuse at OneLook Dictionary Search
• confuse in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??.fyz/

Adjective

confuse

1. feminine singular of confus

Italian

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -uze

Verb

confuse f pl

1. feminine plural of confuso

Adjective

confuse f pl

1. feminine plural of confuso

Verb

confuse

1. third-person singular past historic of confondere

Latin

Participle

c?nf?se

1. vocative masculine singular of c?nf?sus

References

• confuse in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• confuse in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• confuse in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• confuse in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette