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baffle - 7 dictionary results
baf⋅fle
[baf-uh
l] 
verb, -fled, -fling, noun –verb (used with object)
| 1. | to confuse, bewilder, or perplex: He was baffled by the technical language of the instructions. |
| 2. | to frustrate or confound; thwart by creating confusion or bewilderment. |
| 3. | to check or deflect the movement of (sound, light, fluids, etc.). |
| 4. | to equip with a baffle or baffles. |
| 5. | Obsolete. to cheat; trick. |
–verb (used without object)
| 6. | to struggle ineffectually, as a ship in a gale. |
–noun
| 7. | something that balks, checks, or deflects. |
| 8. | an artificial obstruction for checking or deflecting the flow of gases (as in a boiler), sounds (as in the loudspeaker system of a radio or hi-fi set), light (as in a darkroom), etc. |
| 9. | any boxlike enclosure or flat panel for mounting a loudspeaker. |
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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|
Link To baffle
| baf·fle (bāf'əl) tr.v. baf·fled, baf·fling, baf·fles
[Perhaps blend of Scottish Gaelic bauchle, to denounce, revile publicly, and French bafouer, to ridicule.] baf'fle·ment n., baf'fler n. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Baffle
Baf"fle\ (b[a^]f"f'l), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Baffled (-f'ld); p. pr. & vb. n. Baffling (-fl[i^]ng).] [Cf. Lowland Scotch bauchle to treat contemptuously, bauch tasteless, abashed, jaded, Icel. b[=a]gr uneasy, poor, or b[=a]gr, n., struggle, b[ae]gja to push, treat harshly, OF. beffler, beffer, to mock, deceive, dial. G. b["a]ppe mouth, beffen to bark, chide.]1. To cause to undergo a disgraceful punishment, as a recreant knight. [Obs.] He by the heels him hung upon a tree, And baffled so, that all which passed by The picture of his punishment might see. --Spenser. 2. To check by shifts and turns; to elude; to foil. The art that baffles time's tyrannic claim. --Cowper. 3. To check by perplexing; to disconcert, frustrate, or defeat; to thwart. "A baffled purpose." --De Quincey. A suitable scripture ready to repel and baffle them all. --South. Calculations so difficult as to have baffled, until within a . . . recent period, the most enlightened nations. --Prescott. The mere intricacy of a question should not baffle us. --Locke. Baffling wind (Naut.), one that frequently shifts from one point to another. Syn: To balk; thwart; foil; frustrate; defeat.Baffle
Baf"fle\, v. i. 1. To practice deceit. [Obs.] --Barrow. 2. To struggle against in vain; as, a ship baffles with the winds. [R.]Baffle
Baf"fle\, n. A defeat by artifice, shifts, and turns; discomfiture. [R.] "A baffle to philosophy." --South.Baffle
Baf"fle\, n. 1. (Engin.) (a) A deflector, as a plate or wall, so arranged across a furnace or boiler flue as to mingle the hot gases and deflect them against the substance to be heated. (b) A grating or plate across a channel or pipe conveying water, gas, or the like, by which the flow is rendered more uniform in different parts of the cross section of the stream; -- used in measuring the rate of flow, as by means of a weir. 2. (Coal Mining) A lever for operating the throttle valve of a winding engine. [Local, U. S.]
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : baffle
Spanish:
desconcertar,
German:
verwirren,
Japanese:
困惑させる
baffle
1548, "to disgrace," perhaps a Scottish respelling of bauchle "to disgrace publicly" (especially a perjured knight), prob. related to Fr. bafouer "to abuse, hoodwink," possibly from baf, a natural sound of disgust, like bah. Meaning "to bewilder, confuse" is from 1649; that of "to defeat someone's efforts" is from 1675. The noun sense of "shielding device" is first recorded 1881.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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