'discomfit' is correct and usable in written English.
It is a verb which means to defeat (someone) totally; to make (someone) feel embarrassed, confused, or disconcerted. Example sentence: She was discomfited by his directness.
If, therefore, the Republicans really want to discomfit the president, they might do better to equate his incrementalism with ultimate failure.
That may discomfit more hawkish allies, especially the United Arab Emirates, who regard the Brotherhood, even in non-violent incarnation, as the source of jihadist ideology.
Stories have already been planted in the Hong Kong press of military exercises designed to discomfit the Taiwanese.
But there is also a prevalent attitude call it religious correctness with which genuine toleration is easily confused: a polite and well-meaning reluctance to engage believers in the sort of robust clash of ideas that might discomfit them.A telling recent example of this new correctness is provided by Stephen Jay Gould's "Rocks of Ages".
A fugitive returned last year from the Philippines to discomfit the left in a scandal concerning Elf, a state oil company.
Mr Allan Hendrickse, the leader of the mixed-race chamber of parliament, did as much as anyone to discomfit the government two years ago; now nobody mentions him.
In parliament, it is the Greens who most discomfit the government.
An agreement to hold talks on nuclear confidence-building measures is especially heartening.The two countries used never to miss a chance to discomfit each other.
One is that a popular president, like the bitingly eloquent Richard von Weizsäcker, who held the job from 1984 to 1994, can put pressure on and even discomfit a government, despite the post's largely ceremonial role.
A poll by the BBC's Urdu service predicts a majority for Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), a result that would no doubt discomfit General Musharraf.
Certainly, Mr Tang's absence will discomfit the Communists in Beijing.
