Confuse, a. [F. confus, L. confusus, p. p. of confundere. See Confound.] — Webster enters it under “confuse”
Mixed; confounded. [Obs.] Baret.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Confuse, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Confused; p. pr. & vb. n. Confusing.]
1. To mix or blend so that things can not be distinguished; to jumble together; to confound; to render indistinct or obscure; as, to confuse accounts; to confuse one's vision.
A universal hubbub wild Of stunning sounds and voices all confused. Milton.
2. To perplex; to disconcert; to abash; to cause to lose self- possession.
Nor thou with shadowed hint confuse A life that leads melodious days. Tennyson.
Confused and sadly she at length replied. Pope.
Syn. -- To abash; disorder; disarrange; disconcert; confound; obscure; distract. See Abash.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for confused; he lists it under complex, heterogeneous.
Where he writes about it:
A solitary thinker may be confused by some difficulty in a subject, or some mental defect; one is embarrassed in the presence of others, and because of their presence. — from abash
A witness may be embarrassed by annoying personalities, so as to become confused in statements. — from abash
A pupil is confused by a perplexing question, a general confounded by overwhelming defeat. — from abash
Conglomerate (literally, globed together) is said of a confused mingling of masses or lumps of various substances. — from complex
We speak of an abstruse statement, a complex conception, a confused heap, a heterogeneous mass, a tangled skein, an intricate problem; of composite architecture, an involved sentence; of the complicated or intricate accounts of a great business, the entangled accounts of an incompetent or dishonest bookkeeper. — from complex