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discomfit

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Discomfit is defined as to cause someone to feel uneasy or embarrassed.

(verb)

When you point out to the entire room that your friend has said something foolish, this is an example of when you discomfit your friend.

See discomfit in Webster's New World College Dictionary

transitive verb

Archaic to defeat; overthrow
to frustrate the plans or expectations of
to make uneasy; disconcert

Origin: ME discomfiten < OFr desconfit, pp. of desconfire < VL *disconficere < L dis- + conficere: see confect

See discomfit in American Heritage Dictionary 4

transitive verb dis·com·fit·ed, dis·com·fit·ing, dis·com·fits

To make uneasy or perplexed; disconcert. See Synonyms at embarrass.
To thwart the plans of; frustrate.
Archaic To defeat in battle; vanquish.

noun

Discomfiture.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English discomfiten

Origin: , from Old French desconfit

Origin: , past participle of desconfire, descumfire, to defeat

Origin: : des-, dis-

Origin: + confire, to make (from Latin cōnficere, to prepare; see comfit)

Usage Note: It is true that discomfit originally meant “to defeat, frustrate” and that its newer use meaning “to embarrass, disconcert” probably arose in part through confusion with discomfort. But the newer sense is now the most common use of the verb in all varieties of writing and should be considered entirely standard.

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