Baffle

Quick meaning: Baffle is a verb meaning To confuse or perplex (someone) completely; to bewilder, to confound, to puzzle.

Meaning

To confuse or perplex (someone) completely; to bewilder, to confound, to puzzle.

More Meanings

1. To defeat, frustrate, or thwart (someone or their efforts, plans, etc.); to confound, to foil.
2. To dampen, muffle, restrain, or otherwise control (a fluid, or waves travelling through a fluid such as light or sound).
3. To deceive or hoodwink (someone); to gull.
4. To expend effort or struggle in vain.
5. To argue or complain in a petty or trivial manner; to quibble.
6. Followed by away or out: to deprive of (something) through cheating or manipulation; also (followed by out of), to deprive of something by cheating or manipulating (someone).
7. A device used to dampen, muffle, restrain, or otherwise control the movement of a fluid, or waves travelling through a fluid such as light or sound; specifically, a surface positioned inside an open area to inhibit direct motion from one place to another without preventing motion altogether.

Example Sentences

They were baffled as to how the confusion could have arisen.

I am baffled by the contradictions and omissions in the instructions.

There's a riddle now might baffle all the lawyers backed by the ghosts of the whole line of judges:—like a hawk's beak it pecks my brain.

It vvas the very Courſe vvhich our Saviour [Jesus] himſelf took, vvhen the Devil plied him vvith Temptation: Still he had a ſuitable Scripture ready to repel and baffle them all, one after another; every pertinent Text urged home being a direct Stab to a Temptation.

Word Forms

• baffles
• baffling
• baffled
• bafflest
• baffledst
• baffleth
• baffol
• bafful

Synonyms for baffle

Depending on context, synonyms include addle, lose, embroil, stick, stump, baffound.

Antonyms for baffle

Common opposites include clarify, enlighten, unbaffle.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include bewilder, nonplus, perplex, flummox, mystify, dumbfound.

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