different between overpower vs confound

English

Etymology

over- +? power

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??v??pa??/
• (US) IPA^(key): /o?.v??pa??.?/

Verb

overpower (third-person singular simple present overpowers, present participle overpowering, simple past and past participle overpowered)

1. (transitive) To subdue someone by superior force.

   We overpowered the opposing army within a couple of hours.

2. (transitive) To excel or exceed in power; to cause to yield; to subdue.

   Bright light overpowers the eyes.
3. (transitive) To render imperceptible by means of greater strength, intensity etc.

   The dish was OK, but the garlic slightly overpowered the herbs.
4. (video games, transitive) To make excessively powerful.

   Antonym: nerf

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English confounden (“destroy, ruin, perplex”), from Anglo-Norman cunfundre and Old French confondre, from Latin confund? (“to mingle, mix together”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?n?fa?nd/

• Rhymes: -a?nd

• Hyphenation: con?found

Verb

confound (third-person singular simple present confounds, present participle confounding, simple past and past participle confounded)

1. To perplex or puzzle.

   Synonym: puzzle

   • 1830, Joseph Smith, Jr., Book of Mormon: Ether, i, 34,

     And the brother of Jared being a large and mighty man, and a man highly favored of the Lord, Jared, his brother, said unto him: Cry unto the Lord, that he will not confound us that we may not understand our words.
2. To stun or amaze.
3. To fail to see the difference; to mix up; to confuse right and wrong.

   Synonyms: confuse, mix up

   • 1651 (Latin edition 1642), Thomas Hobbes, De Cive (Latin title) Philosophicall Rudiments Concerning Government and Society (English),

     Hey who lesse seriously consider the force of words, doe sometimes confound Law with Counsell, sometimes with Covenant, sometimes with Right. They confound Law with Counsell, who think, that it is the duty of Monarchs not onely to give ear to their Counsellours, but also to obey them, as though it were in vaine to take Counsell, unlesse it were also followed.

4. (sometimes proscribed) To make something worse.
   • 1983, Carol M. Anderson, Susan Stewart, Mastering Resistance: A Practical Guide to Family Therapy,

     While she had obeyed him, smiling sweetly all the time, she had nursed a growing resentment of what she called his "Latin American macho attitude." To confound the problem, his mother, who lived with them on and off, was described by the wife as being as domineering as her son.

5. To combine in a confused fashion; to mingle so as to make the parts indistinguishable.
6. To cause to be ashamed; to abash.

7. To defeat, to frustrate, to thwart.
   • 1848 February 12, John Mitchel, The United Irishman, Letter to Lord Clarendon,

     I am now, in order the better to confound your politics, going to give you a true account of the means we intend to use, and of the rules, signs, and pass-words of our new United Irish Society Lodge A. 1.—They are so simple that you will never believe them.

8. (dated) To damn (a mild oath).
   • 1882, Arthur Conan Doyle, My Friend the Murderer in The Gully of Bluemansdyke and Other Stories,

     "Number 43 is no better, Doctor," said the head-warder, in a slightly reproachful accent, looking in round the corner of my door.

     "Confound 43!" I responded from behind the pages of the Australian Sketcher.

   • 1877, Anna Sewell, Black Beauty Chapter 23[3]

     "Confound these bearing reins!" he said to himself; "I thought we should have some mischief soon—master will be sorely vexed;

9. (archaic) To destroy, ruin, or devastate; to bring to ruination.

Translations

Noun

confound (plural confounds)

1. (statistics) A confounding variable.

   Synonym: confounder

   • 2009, C. James Goodwin, Research In Psychology: Methods and Design, John Wiley & Sons (?ISBN), page 175:

     The participants certainly differ in how their practice is distributed (1, 2, or 3 days), but they also differ in how much total practice they get (3, 6, or 9 hours). This is a perfect example of a confound—it is impossible to tell if the results are due to one factor (distribution of practice) or the other (total practice hours); the two factors covary perfectly.