Word of the Day

Friday, June 30, 2000

flummox

\FLUM-uhks\ , transitive verb;

To confuse; to perplex.

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Quotes:

And when a poll's results happen to upset the conventional wisdom, orconfound the experts, or flummox the pundits, then that's a poll toremember.

-- Michael Kagay, "Unexpected Results Make for Memorable Polls", New York Times, March 23, 2000

The chronological order of the Stuart, Hanover, Lancaster and TudorBritish royal houses had me flummoxed.

-- Sara Ivry, "Game Show Wannabe: I Coulda Been a Millionaire", New York Times, February 27, 2000

Flummoxed by the surreality of history and the mind-bogglingchanges unleashed by the 60's, many writers in that era became minimalists,withdrawing, turtlelike, inside their own homes and heads.

-- Michiko Kakutani, "New Wave of Writers Reinvents Literature", New York Times, April 22, 2000

Origin:

The origin of flummox is unknown.