Confusion

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Confusion \Con*fu"sion\, n. [F. confusion, L. confusio.]
     1. The state of being mixed or blended so as to produce
        indistinctness or error; indistinct combination; disorder;
        tumult.
        [1913 Webster]
  


              The confusion of thought to which the Aristotelians
              were liable.                          --Whewell.
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              Moody beggars starving for a time
              Of pellmell havoc and confusion.      --Shak.
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     2. The state of being abashed or disconcerted; loss
        self-possession; perturbation; shame.
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              Confusion dwelt in every face
              And fear in every heart.              --Spectator.
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     3. Overthrow; defeat; ruin.
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              Ruin seize thee, ruthless king,
              Confusion on thy banners wait.        --Gray.
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     4. One who confuses; a confounder. [Obs.] --Chapmen.
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     {Confusion of goods} (Law), the intermixture of the goods of
        two or more persons, so that their respective portions can
        no longer be distinguished. --Blackstone. --Bouvier.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  confusion
       n 1: disorder resulting from a failure to behave predictably;
            "the army retreated in confusion"
       2: a mental state characterized by a lack of clear and orderly
          thought and behavior; "a confusion of impressions" [syn: {mental
          confusion}, {confusedness}, {disarray}]
       3: a feeling of embarrassment that leaves you confused [syn: {discombobulation}]
       4: an act causing a disorderly combination of elements with
          identities lost and distinctions blended; "the confusion
          of tongues at the Tower of Babel"
       5: a mistake that results from taking one thing to be another;
          "he changed his name in order to avoid confusion with the
          notorious outlaw" [syn: {mix-up}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  200 Moby Thesaurus words for "confusion":
     abashment, agitation, aloofness, ambiguity, ambiguousness,
     amorphia, amorphism, amorphousness, anarchism, anarcho-syndicalism,
     anarchy, antinomianism, assortment, ataxia, babel, baffle,
     bafflement, balk, bashfulness, bedlam, befuddlement, bewilderment,
     blurriness, bother, botheration, chagrin, chaos, check, checkmate,
     cloud, clutter, combining, commotion, confounding, confoundment,
     contradiction, coyness, criminal syndicalism, daze, demureness,
     demurity, derangement, destruction, devastation, diffusion,
     dilemma, din, disarrangement, disarray, discombobulation,
     discomfiture, discomposure, disconcert, disconcertedness,
     disconcertion, disconcertment, discontinuity, discountenance,
     discreteness, disjunction, dislocation, disorder, disorderliness,
     disorganization, disorientation, dispersal, dispersion, disruption,
     dissolution, distress, disturbance, dither, embarrassment, enigma,
     entropy, fabulous formless darkness, fix, flap, flummox, flurry,
     fluster, flutter, fog, foil, formlessness, foul-up, frenzy,
     frustration, fuddle, fuddlement, fuzziness, gallimaufry, hassle,
     havoc, haze, haziness, huddle, hullabaloo, incoherence,
     inconsistency, indecisiveness, indefiniteness, indeterminateness,
     intermingling, jam, jumble, lather, license, loss, lynch law, maze,
     mess, messiness, misrule, mist, mistiness, misunderstanding,
     mix-up, mixing, mixture, mob law, mob rule, mobocracy, morass,
     mortification, mousiness, muck, muddle, muddlement, mystery,
     nihilism, nonadhesion, noncohesion, nonplus, obscurity, ochlocracy,
     orderlessness, pandemonium, perplexity, perturbation, pickle,
     plight, pother, predicament, primal chaos, problem, pucker, puzzle,
     puzzlement, quandary, rebellion, rebuff, repulse, reversal,
     reverse, revolution, riddle, rout, ruffle, ruination, scattering,
     scrape, screw-up, self-consciousness, separateness, setback,
     shambles, shamefacedness, shamefastness, shapelessness, shuffle,
     shyness, skittishness, snafu, snarl, stagefright, stammering, stew,
     sweat, swivet, syndicalism, timidity, timidness, timorousness,
     tizzy, tohubohu, tumult, turbulence, turmoil, unadherence,
     unadhesiveness, unassuredness, unclearness, unease, uneasiness,
     unruliness, unsettlement, untenacity, upset, vagueness
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  CONFUSION. The concurrence of two qualities in the same subject, which 
  mutually destroy each other. Potli. Ob. P. 3, c. 5 3 Bl. Com. 405; Story 
  Bailm. Sec. 40.