adj. (colloquial).—Excessive; odious; detestable; e.g., a CONFOUNDED nuisance, lie, humbug, etc. [CONFOUND is properly ‘to mistake one for another,’ or ‘to throw into consternation.’ In its colloquial sense CONFOUNDED is misused much as are ‘awful,’ ‘beastly,’ and other ‘strumpets of speech.’]
1766. GOLDSMITH, The Vicar of Wakefield, ch. vii. (ed. 1827), p. 42. Mr Thornhill, loq.: ‘For what are tythes and tricks but an imposition, all CONFOUNDED imposture.’
