A confound is when two or more things are mixed up and become difficult to understand. You might also confuse someone by giving them conflicting information.
Imagine being at a party with several friends who all have similar-sounding names. The host says, "Sarah's going to meet John in the kitchen," but then another friend says, "No, I'm the one who's meeting Sarah in the living room." Now everyone is confused and it would be a confound.
How common is "confound"?
Word confound is considered rare in modern English. It appears most frequently in academic texts and less often in other writings.
Definitions
verb
To perplex or puzzle.
To stun or amaze.
To fail to see the difference; to mix up; to confuse right and wrong.
Example: 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.
(sometimes proscribed) To make something worse.
Example: Don't confound the situation by yelling.
To combine in a confused fashion; to mingle so as to make the parts indistinguishable.
To cause to be ashamed; to abash.
Example: His actions confounded the skeptics.
To defeat, to frustrate, to thwart.
Example: 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.
(dated) To damn (a mild oath).
Example: Confound you!
(archaic) To destroy, ruin, or devastate; to bring to ruination.
