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more about baffling
baffling |
3 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: 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. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Baffling \Baf"fling\ (b[a^]f"fl[i^]ng), a. Frustrating; discomfiting; disconcerting; as baffling currents, winds, tasks. -- {Baff"ling*ly}, adv -- {Baff"ling*ness}, n. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: baffling adj : making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve; "a baffling problem"; "I faced the knotty problem of what to have for breakfast"; "a problematic situation at home" [syn: {knotty}, {problematic}, {problematical}]
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