confront

English

Etymology

From Middle French confronter, borrowed from Medieval Latin cōnfrontāre, from con- + frontem (“front, forehead”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kənˈfɹʌnt/
  • Audio (US):(file)
    • Rhymes: -ʌnt
  • IPA(key): (obsolete) /kɒnˈfɹɒnt/[1]
  • Hyphenation: con‧front

Verb

confront (third-person singular simple present confronts, present participle confronting, simple past and past participle confronted)

  1. (transitive) To stand or meet facing, especially in competition, hostility or defiance; to come face to face with.
    Synonyms: oppose, challenge
    It is important that police officers learn to deescalate situations in which someone confronts them aggressively.
  2. (transitive) To deal with.
    Synonym: tackle
    confront a problem
  3. (transitive) To bring someone face to face with something.
    We should confront him about the missing money.
  4. (transitive) To come up against; to encounter.
    Inter Milan are to confront Juventus in the final.
  5. (intransitive) To engage in confrontation.
  6. (transitive) To set a thing side by side with; to compare.
  7. (transitive) To put a thing facing to; to set in contrast to.

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

References

  1. ^ “Confront” in John Walker, A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary […] , London: Sold by G. G. J. and J. Robinſon, Paternoſter Row; and T. Cadell, in the Strand, 1791, →OCLC, page 159.
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.