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A fortification, or work for defense; a fort. No sconce or fortress of his raising was ever known either to have been forced, or yielded up, or quitted. Milton.

eak up the harmonious progress of; to throw into disorder or confusion; as, the emperor disconcerted the plans of his enemy.

The act of disconcerting, or state of being disconcerted; discomposure; perturbation. [R.] State Trials (1794).

To cover or shelter, as with a sconce or fort; to place or hide securely; to conceal. She shall not see me: I will ensconce me behind the arras. Shak.

See Ensconce.

Misconception. [Obs.]

o misapprehend. Those things which, for want of due consideration heretofore, they have misconceived. Hooker.

One who misconceives.

Erroneous conception; false opinion; wrong understanding. Harvey.

xciting suddenly a consciousness of guilt, mistake, or inferiority; to put to shame; to disconcert; to discomfit. Abashed, the devil stood, And felt how awful goodness is. Milton. He was a man whom no check could abash. Macaulay.

To check by perplexing; to disconcert, frustrate, or defeat; to thwart. "A baffled purpose." De Quincey. A suitable scripture ready to repel and baffle them all. South. Calculations so difficult as to have baffled, until within a . . . recent period, the most enlightened nations. Prescott. The mere intricacy of a quest…

Frustrating; discomfiting; disconcerting; as, baffling currents, winds, tasks. -- Bafflingly, adv. -- Bafflingness, n.

To abash; to disconcert or be disconcerted or put out of countenance. [Obs.] His countenance was bold and bashed not. Spenser.

To baffle; to disconcert; to turn away; -- also, to obstruct; to hinder. [Obs.] Ye should have somewhat blenched him therewith, yet he might and would of likelihood have gone further. Sir T. More.

with haughty, stern looks, or with arrogant speech and dogmatic assertions; to abash or disconcert by impudent or abusive words or looks; to bully; as, to browbeat witnesses. My grandfather was not a man to be browbeaten. W. Irving.

The act of bearing down, abashing, or disconcerting, with stern looks, suspercilious manners, or confident assertions. The imperious browbeating and scorn of great men. L'Estrange.

To perplex; to disconcert; to abash; to cause to lose self- possession.

The state of being abashed or disconcerted; loss self-possession; perturbation; shame.

ion by something which impedes or confuses mental action; to perplex; to discompose; to disconcert; as, laughter may embarrass an orator.

hindrance; confusion or discomposure of mind, as from not knowing what to do or to say; disconcertedness. The embarrassment which inexperienced minds have often to express themselves upon paper. W. Irving. The embarrassments tom commerce growing out of the late regulations. Bancroft.