Roget's Thesaurus

#479. Confutation

Nouns

confutation, refutation; answer, complete answer; disproof, conviction, redargution, invalidation; exposure, exposition; clincher; retort; reductio ad absurdum; knock down argument, tu quoque argument [Lat.]; sockdolager [U.S.], correction etc. 572a; dissuasion etc. 616.

Verbs

confute, refute, disprove; parry, negative, controvert, rebut, confound, disconfirm, redargue, expose, show the fallacy of, defeat; demolish, break etc. (destroy) 162; overthrow, overturn, scatter to the winds, explode, invalidate; silence; put to silence, reduce to silence; clinch an argument, clinch a question; give one a setdown, stop the mouth, shut up; have, have on the hip. not leave a leg to stand on, cut the ground from under one's feet. be confuted etc.; fail; expose one's weak point, show one's weak point. counter evidence etc. 468.

Adjectives

confuting, confuted, etc. v.; capable of refutation; refutable, confutable, defeasible. contravene (counter evidence) 468. condemned on one's own showing, condemned out of one's own mouth.

Phrases

the argument falls to the ground, cadit quaestio [Lat.], it does not hold water, suo sibi gladio hunc jugulo [Terence]; his argument was demolished by new evidence.