I.to check or repress a boiling liquid, to suppress, restrain, check.
I. Prop.: cocus magnum ahenum quando fervit, paulā confutat truā, Titin. ap. Non. p. 87, 13 (Com. Rel. v. 128 Rib.); cf. Varr. ib. p. 87, 11.—Hence (far more freq.),
II. Trop.
A. In gen., to repress, diminish, impede, destroy, put to silence: nostras secundas res, Cato ap. Gell. 7, 3, 14: “maximos dolores inventorum suorum memoriā et recordatione,” Cic. Tusc. 5, 31 88: “audaciam,” id. Part. Or. 38, 134.—
B. In partic.
1. To put down by words, to put to silence, confute (so class.): sensus judjcum imperiosis comminationibus, Tiro ap. Gell. 7, 3, 13: “ego istos, qui nunc me culpant, confutaverim,” Plaut. Truc. 2, 3, 28: “iratum senem verbis,” Ter. Phorm. 3, 1, 13; cf. “dictis,” id. Heaut. 5, 1, 76.—
2. To refute, confute, disprove, answer conclusively: “hunc tactum confutabunt nares?” Lucr. 4, 488: “argumenta Stoicorum,” Cic. Div. 1, 5, 8: “opinionis levitatem,” id. N. D. 2, 17, 45: “ut verba magnifica rebus confutaret,” Liv. 37, 10, 2: “suo sibi argumento confutatus est,” Gell. 5, 10, 16.—
