DISCOMFIT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does discomfit mean? 

• DISCOMFIT (verb)
  The verb DISCOMFIT has 1 sense:

1. cause to lose one's composure

  Familiarity information: DISCOMFIT used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISCOMFIT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they discomfit    ... he / she / it discomfits   
Past simple: discomfited   
Past participle: discomfited   
-ing form: discomfiting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause to lose one's composure

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

discomfit; discompose; disconcert; untune; upset

Hypernyms (to "discomfit" is one way to...):

arouse; elicit; enkindle; evoke; fire; kindle; provoke; raise (call forth (emotions, feelings, and responses))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "discomfit"):

enervate; faze; unnerve; unsettle (disturb the composure of)

dissolve (cause to lose control emotionally)

inhibit (make (someone) self-conscious and as a result unable to act naturally)

bemuse; bewilder; discombobulate; throw (cause to be confused emotionally)

abash; embarrass (cause to be embarrassed; cause to feel self-conscious)

anguish; hurt; pain (cause emotional anguish or make miserable)

afflict (cause great unhappiness for; distress)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The performance is likely to discomfit Sue

Derivation:

discomfiture (anxious embarrassment)

 Context examples 

Miss Murdstone merely answers with a frown and a formal bend: Mr. Chillip, discomfited, goes into a corner, keeping me with him, and opens his mouth no more.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But, though discomfited and disappointed, he could still do something for his own interest and his own enjoyment.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

And so well did he face it, that at the end of half an hour the wolves drew back discomfited.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

And Ugh-Gluk withdrew discomfited, the women laughing at him as he walked away.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

As we limped homewards, sadly mauled and discomfited, we saw them for a long time flying at a great height against the deep blue sky above our heads, soaring round and round, no bigger than wood-pigeons, with their eyes no doubt still following our progress.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As we had arranged to say nothing at first, my aunt was not a little discomfited.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was Traddles; whom Mr. Mell instantly discomfited by bidding him hold his tongue. —To insult one who is not fortunate in life, sir, and who never gave you the least offence, and the many reasons for not insulting whom you are old enough and wise enough to understand, said Mr. Mell, with his lips trembling more and more, you commit a mean and base action.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I fancied she was jealous even of the saucepan on it; and I have reason to know that she took its impressment into the service of boiling my egg and broiling my bacon, in dudgeon; for I saw her, with my own discomfited eyes, shake her fist at me once, when those culinary operations were going on, and no one else was looking.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)