Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Confute

Confute , transitive verb

[Latin confutare to chek (a boiling liquid), to repress, confute; con- + a root seen in futis a water vessel), prob. akin to fundere to pour: compare French confuter. See Fuse to melt.]

To overwhelm by argument; to refute conclusively; to prove or show to be false or defective; to overcome; to silence.
Satan stood... confuted and convinced Of his weak arguing fallacious drift. — Milton
No man's error can be confuted who doth not... grant some true principle that contradicts his error. — Chillingworth
I confute a good profession with a bad conversation. — Fuller