[n. of action f. CONFRONT, corresp. to med.L. confrontātio (12th c. in Du Cange), F. confrontation (14th c. in Godef.).] The action of confronting.
1. The bringing of persons face to face; esp. for examination and eliciting of the truth.
1632. Star-Chamb. Cases (Camden), 296. Dr. Duck … moved againe for the confrontation of the two women.
1685. F. Spence, trans. Varillas’ Ho. Medici, 25. Perruzzi out-faced the examination, but not his confrontation with Malavolti.
1820. Examiner, No. 627. 255/2. They were recognized by the young woman upon confrontation.
1863. J. F. Stephen, in Reader, 1 Aug., 110. Many interrogations and private confrontations with witnesses.
2. The action of bringing face to face, or together, for comparison.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl. (1675), 373. Some so like, that an actual Confrontation of the Artist’s works, and Nature’s, would scarce distinguish them.
1779. Swinburne, Spain, xliv. (T.). The argument would require a great number of comparisons, confrontations, and combinations, to find out the connection between the two manners.
1858. Lewes, Sea-side Stud., 221. I was not a little anxious to bring my operatic erudition into direct confrontation with fact.
