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baffled

[baf-uhl]

Example Sentences Origin

verb (used with object)

to confuse, bewilder, or perplex: He was baffled by the technical language of the instructions.

to frustrate or confound; thwart by creating confusion or bewilderment.

to check or deflect the movement of (sound, light, fluids, etc.).

to equip with a baffle or baffles.

Obsolete. to cheat; trick.

verb (used without object)

to struggle ineffectually, as a ship in a gale.

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Baffled is always a great word to know.

So is quincunx. Does it mean:

a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.

an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.

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noun

something that balks, checks, or deflects.

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.

any boxlike enclosure or flat panel for mounting a loudspeaker.

Origin:
1540–50; 1910–15 for def. 8; perhaps < Scots bauchle to disgrace, treat with contempt, equivalent to bauch (see baff) + -le

Related forms

baf·fle·ment, noun

baf·fler, noun

baf·fling, adjective

baf·fling·ly, adverb

baf·fling·ness, noun

EXPAND

un·baf·fled, adjective

un·baf·fling, adjective

un·baf·fling·ly, adverb

COLLAPSE

Synonyms
1. See thwart.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source

Link To baffled

Example Sentences

The problem what becomes of the pins has hitherto baffled the mightiest scientific intellects.

But how they arrived on the island has baffled scientists for centuries.

So many fans of market discipline are baffled by the drubbing of the rupiah.

EXPAND

The problem what becomes of the pins has hitherto baffled the mightiest scientific intellects.

But how they arrived on the island has baffled scientists for centuries.

So many fans of market discipline are baffled by the drubbing of the rupiah.

Why the flu is worse in winter than summer has long baffled scientists.

Yet the purpose of this straightforward anatomical arrangement has baffled researchers.

Suzanne was stuck up on the hill with nothing to watch except a group of baffled scientists pacing around.

Last spring a baffled user posted a query about why her ferrets-for-sale ad disappeared.

Taylor's social media marketing left her baffled about which efforts on which networks were yielding the best returns.

They would argue, contradict one another, and leave you more baffled than ever.

The people who run football are baffled by the trend.

Compare the information on these maps in your mind to come up with an answer for your baffled astronaut.

But it's the silliness of the submissions that has us baffled.

At first, the population plunge baffled scientists, who thought the animals were dying from disease.

Cabrera was baffled by the number of police officers.

I've been asked out by a number of male students and was always baffled that any of them thought such behavior was appropriate.

Russians are often baffled and angered by western accounts of the second world war-and justifiably so.

But the genetic origin of this diversity has baffled scientists-until now.

There were no mysterious psychological problems, no strange conditions that baffled the doctors.

But where they look somewhat jaded, the chick is wild-eyed, as if baffled by its own daring.

If the scientists are baffled and uncertain, the public has a right to be, too.

It means confused or bewildered, baffled or perplexed.

Bulgarians seem a little baffled by the online revolution.

Scientists are baffled about why the notoungulates went extinct.

The five-year absence of a follow-up record has baffled fans.

Anti-corruption activists and student leaders were baffled.

Gingerich is still baffled by the conflict that many people feel between religion and science.

Just as important, it knows and admits when it is baffled or uncertain.

Such feats of navigation have long baffled students of animal behavior.

Mansour is baffled by his wife's dreamy contemplations.

We are both experienced dog owners and this sudden change in behavior has baffled us.

The process baffled me then and continues to baffle me today.

Baffled wildlife officials and ecologists were tasked with tracking the animal before it killed again.

And it does not help that the boffins themselves seem baffled by the results.

It's a city that is underrated and misunderstood and that's always baffled me.

Researchers have been studying whale songs for decades and are still baffled.

Aleson's bizarre telegram both excited and baffled me.

Mozart, for one, was baffled where his marvellous music came from.

Iapetus's spiky belt, which stretches all the way around the moon's equator, has baffled astronomers for decades.

Speculation about a man with an extreme obsession could be a lead in a case that has baffled investigators for weeks.

Autism seems to be increasingly common, and has baffled scientists searching for its causes and.

They were baffled as to where exactly it had lodged in his body.

Chinese students are often baffled by the emphasis on extracurriculars and may have never written a personal essay.

He tried to find words to explain how utterly baffled and deserted he felt.

He lives frugally, does not drink or smoke and seems baffled by the idea of time spent not working.

But geologists have long been baffled about why they have been occurring in the center of a continental plate.

Trepanier confessed, the police said they were baffled by the crimes.

Librarians were baffled when the light bulbs went missing, then reappeared later when they saw students sitting in the spaces.

But identifying the particular peak where it is born has long baffled explorers and scientists.

But it baffled him that drugs he'd been prescribing for years seemed to be struggling to prove their effectiveness.

But whether it is a raw human emotion as basic as anger or a mental skill as complex as language has baffled scientists.

In an early encounter, she baffled him into affirming the possibility that he did not exist.

It's always baffled me that this is useful to people.

The same critics she once baffled have collectively crowned her queen of the year-end album.

Scientists remain baffled as to how iron of such purity could be cast at that time, let alone refuse to rust.

Brooks' column absolutely baffled me, and still does.

What began as a modest, seemingly containable fire erupted into a deadly fireball with a ferocity that baffled investigators.

Politics are alienated and baffled before this tremendous amount of economic indexes and indicators.

These are cases that have baffled the scientific community, and will satisfy every kid's natural.

How the freshwater insects pull it off has baffled scientists-until now.

COLLAPSE

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

baffle

1540s, "to disgrace," perhaps a Scottish respelling of bauchle "to disgrace publicly" (especially a perjured knight), which is probably related to Fr. bafouer "to abuse, hoodwink" (16c.), possibly from baf, a natural sound of disgust, like bah (cf. Ger. baff machen "to flabbergast"). Meaning "to bewilder,

EXPAND

confuse" is from 1640s; that of "to defeat someone's efforts" is from 1675. The noun sense of "shielding device" is first recorded 1881. Related: Baffled "confounded" (1650s); bafflement (1841).

COLLAPSE

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"We are prepared for insults, but compliments leave us baffled."

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