Obs. Also 4–5 confus. [ME. confus, a. OF. confus, -use (= Pr. confus, Sp. and It. confuso):—L. confūs-us, pa. pple. of confund-ĕre to CONFOUND.]
1. Of persons: Confounded, disconcerted, abashed, perplexed. Used both as passive pple., and adj. = CONFUSED 2.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. XI. 93. He bi-com so confoundet [v.r. confus, confuse] he couþe not mele And as doumbe as a dore.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1372. I am so confus, that I may not seye.
c. 1430. Lydg., Bochas, I. viii. (1544), 15 a. Ashamed and confuse of this dede.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 162/2. His uncle departed al confus.
1600. F. Walker, Sp. Mandeville, 135 a. It maketh me confuse and wauering.
2. Confusedly mixed, promiscuous; disorderly, marked by confusion; = CONFUSED 3.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, III. 427. A ful confuse matere.
1531. Elyot, Gov., I. i. Chaos: whiche of some is expounde a confuse mixture.
1590. H. Barrow, in Greenwood, Collect. Sland. Art., D iiij. It consisteth of a confuse multitude of all sorts of people.
1712. E. Cooke, Voy. S. Sea, 407. The Circumstances … are very confuse and improbable.
b. Blended so that the distinction of elements is lost; = CONFUSED 4.
1655. W. F., Meteors, III. 82. The milke way … was nothing else but innumerable little Starres, which with their confuse light, caused that whitnesse.
c. = CONFUSED 5.
c. 1568. Fulke, Two Treat., I. (1577), 34. The 11. article is so confuse that it is harde to bring it into any certeine numbre of demandes.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, II. (Arb.), 87. The most laudable languages are alwaies most plaine … and the barbarous most confuse and indistinct.
1633. Ames, Agst. Cerem., II. 17. His confuse aequivocall terme of Ceremonie.
1698. Norris, Treat. on Sev. Subj., 114. If we had not … a confuse Perception of them.
1737. Waterland, Eucharist, 127. To say, in a confuse general way.
