Confutation

#479. Confutation. -- N. {ant 478} confutation, refutation; answer, complete answer; disproof, conviction, redargution[obs], invalidation; exposure, exposition; clincher; retort; reductio ad absurdum; knock down argument, tu quoque argument[Lat]; sockdolager * [obs][U. S.].
• correction &c. 527a; dissuasion &c. 616.
• V. confute, refute, disprove; parry, negative, controvert, rebut, confound, disconfirm, redargue[obs], expose, show the fallacy of, defeat; demolish, break &c. (destroy) 162; overthrow, overturn scatter to the winds, explode, invalidate; silence; put to silence, reduce to silence; clinch an argument, clinch a question; give one a setdown[obs], stop the mouth, shut up; have, have on the hip.
• not leave a leg to stand on, cut the ground from under one's feet.
• be confuted &c.; fail; expose one's weak point, show one's weak point.
• counter evidence &c. 468.
• Adj. confuting, confuted, &c. v.; capable of refutation; refutable, confutable[obs], defeasible.
• contravene (counter evidence) 468.
• condemned on one's own showing,condemned out of one's own mouth.
• Phr. the argument falls to the ground, cadit quaestio[Lat], it does not hold water, " suo sibi gladio hunc jugulo" [Terence]; his argument was demolished by new evidence.

This definition is from Roget's Thesaurus.
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