Meaning

(uncountable) The state of feeling confused or mystified because one cannot understand a complicated matter, a problem, etc.; bewilderment, confusion; (countable) often in in a puzzle: an instance of this..

Definitions by Sense

1. (uncountable) The state of feeling confused or mystified because one cannot understand a complicated matter, a problem, etc.; bewilderment, confusion; (countable) often in in a puzzle: an instance of this.
2. (countable) A thing such as a complicated matter or a problem which is difficult to make sense of or understand; also, a person who is difficult to make sense of or understand; an enigma.
3. (countable) Often preceded by a descriptive word: a game or toy, or a problem, requiring some effort to complete or work out, which is intended as a pastime and/or to test one's mental ability.
4. (countable, hunting, obsolete) Short for puzzle-peg (“a piece of wood secured under a dog's jaw to keep the dog's nose away from the ground so that it uses the scent in the air to track its quarry, and to prevent the dog from tearing the quarry once found”).
5. To cause (oneself or someone, or their mind, etc.) to feel confused or mystified because they cannot understand a complicated matter, a problem, etc.; to confuse, to mystify, to perplex.
6. To use (one's brain or mind) to try to work out a complicated matter, a problem, etc.; also, to try to work out (a complicated matter, a problem, etc.).
7. To (intentionally) make (something) complicated or confused, and so difficult to resolve or understand; to confuse, to complicate.
8. To cause (someone) to not know what to do due to some problem, situation, etc.; to bewilder, to confound, to perplex.

Example Sentences

Certainly, Men in Great Fortunes, are ſtrangers to themſelues, and vvhile they are in the puſle of buſineſſe, they haue no time to tend their Health, either of Body, or Minde.

She stopt, felt herself getting into a puzzle, and could not be prevailed on to add another word, not by dint of several minutes of supplication and waiting.

My lady—your ladyship. It sounds very strange, and as if it was not natural. I never thought of it before; but, now you have named it, I am all in a puzzle.

Where he went after he left the house is a puzzle.

To the laſt puzzle propounded, vvhether theſe Archei [vital forces believed to be responsible for alchemical reactions within living bodies] be ſo many ſprigs of the common Soul of the vvorld, or particular ſubſiſtencies of themſelves; there is no great inconvenience in acknovvledging that it may be either vvay.

About the painting I have a great puzzle in my head between [George] Vertue, Mr. D'Urry, and Bishop Tanner [Thomas Tanner?].

He is a puzzle to the servants, who are fearful of being too obsequious, or not civil enough, to him.

He went away on the word, leaving me with a new mystery to think of, a new puzzle to grapple with.

Word Forms

• puzzles
• puzzling
• puzzled
• no-table-tags
• glossary
• puzzle
• puzzlest
• puzzledst
• puzzleth
• -

Synonyms for puzzle

Related Words

When Should You Use Puzzle?

Use puzzle when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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