Confounded

As a detective solving the mystery of the crossword clue ‘Confounded’, the first thing I did was to observe the patterns of the clue to figure out what kind of answer it might require. With the word being a seven-letter word, it narrowed down the possibilities of what the word could be, but it wasn’t enough to come up with a definite answer.

After that, I started brainstorming different words that could fit the pattern of the clue, which led to words like puzzled, bewildered, stumped, and flustered, among others. However, none of these words fit the context of the clue perfectly.

At this point, I paid more attention to the tense and context of the clue. The clue reads ‘confounded,’ which suggests that something unexpected has happened, causing frustration or confusion. It could be something that was thrown off or thrown aside. This led me to think of the word ‘THREW‘, which fit the context of the clue perfectly, and it also happens to be a seven-letter word.

In conclusion, as a detective, with careful observation, thoughtful brainstorming, and attention to context clues, I was able to deduce the answer to the crossword clue ‘Confounded’ as ‘THREW’.