Confound

The verb confound means to confuse and surprise someone by making the situation unable to explain or deal with.

Synonyms are amaze, astonish, dumbfound, or puzzle.

The word origins from Anglo-French (1300) confoundre meaning “to destroy utterly”, and from Latin confundere meaning “to confuse, jumble together, bring into disorder”. It comes from com meaning “together” plus fundere meaning “to pour”. The figurative sense of “confuse the mind, perplex” emerged in Latin.

Alexis was proud to confound her critics by releasing her remarkable album.

A patient confounds his doctor after recovering suddenly from a severe disease.

I like to confound others’ expectations about me.