Contents -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (1870–1938). Roget’s International Thesaurus. 1922.

Class IV. Words Relating to the Intellectual Faculties
Division (I) Formation of Ideas
Section IV. Reasoning Processes

479. Confutation.

   NOUN:CONFUTATION, refutation; answer, complete answer; disproof, conviction, redargution, invalidation; exposure, exposition, exposé [F.], clincher [colloq.], retort, reductio ad absurdum [L.]; knock-down -; tu quoque– argument; sockdolager [slang, U. S.].
   VERB:CONFUTE, refute; parry, negative, disprove, redargue, expose, show up, show the fallacy of, rebut, defeat; demolish (destroy) [See Destruction]; overthrow, overturn; scatter to the winds, explode, invalidate; silence; put -, reduce- to silence; clinch -an argument, – a question; give one a setdown [colloq.], stop the mouth, shut up; have, have on the hip, have the better of; confound [archaic], convince.
  not leave a leg to stand on, cut the ground from under one’s feet; smash all opposition; knock the bottom out of an argument [colloq.].
  BE CONFUTED &c.; fail; expose -, show- one’s weak point.
   ADJECTIVE:CONFUTABLE, confutative, refutable; confuting, confuted, &c. v.; capable of refutation.
  condemned -on one’s own showing, – out of one’s own mouth; “hoist with his own petar” [Hamlet].
   QUOTATIONS:

1. The argument falls to the ground.
2. Cadit quæstio.
3. It does not hold water.
4. Suo sibi gladio hunc jugulo.—Terence
5. Thy speech bewrayeth thee.—Bible
6. Now, infidel, I have you on the hip.—Merchant of Venice
7. Let us have faith that Right makes Might.—Lincoln