confound

Olvera expressed optimism about the future of Latinos in the U.S., pointing to the growing power of the confounding Latino vote.

Even after Blanc arrives, he’s confounded to find himself occasionally standing on the sidelines, a bystander in Jud’s moral crusade to herd his congregation toward righteousness.

“So you see, Mr. Harley-Dickinson,” she concluded, “that is why I must speak with that Gypsy. Unlikely as it seems, the semitoothless soothsayer may know something about what lies beneath all these confounding events.”

Then, as has happened so often this season, a confounding moment of adversity struck.

The various studies are mainly observational and could be skewed by confounding factors—people who are healthy for other reasons could use stairs more, for example.