baffling

Verb

baffle (third-person singular simple present baffles, present participle baffling, simple past and past participle baffled)

1. (transitive) To confuse or perplex (someone) completely; to bewilder, to confound, to puzzle.
   • I am baffled by the contradictions and omissions in the instructions.

   Synonyms:

   addle, vex, lose, embroil, stick, stump, baffound, bamboozle, bedevil, befuddle

   Antonyms:

   clarify, enlighten, unbaffle

2. (archaic, transitive) To defeat, frustrate, or thwart (someone or their efforts, plans, etc.); to confound, to foil.
   • And ſhould the Parlament, endu'd vvith Legiſlative povver, make our Lavvs, and be after to diſpute them peice-meale vvith the reaſon, conſcience, humour, paſſion, fanſie, folly, obſtinacy, or other ends of one man, vvhoſe ſole vvord and vvill ſhall baffle and unmake vvhat all the vviſdom of a...1649, J[ohn] Milton, “Intitl’d to the Prince of Wales.”, in ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC, page 219

   Synonyms:

   beat, bring down, convince, chew up, eat someone for breakfast, eat someone's lunch, flog, humble, kick ass, malavogue

   1. (archaic, specifically, transitive) Of weather or wind: to hinder or prevent (a ship or its crew) from advancing.
      • "She [the ship] behaves nobly," observed the captain, stepping aft to the binnacle, and looking at the compass; "if the wind does not baffle us, we shall weather."1833, [Frederick Marryat], chapter XV, in Peter Simple. […], volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], published 1834, →OCLC, page 232
3. (transitive) To dampen, muffle, restrain, or otherwise control (a fluid, or waves travelling through a fluid such as light or sound).
   • Fleet ships encountering on the high seas / Who speak, and unto eternity diverge— / These hailed each other, poised on the loud surge / Of one of Mrs. Grundy's Tuesday teas, / Nor trimmed one sail to baffle the driving breeze.1924 August, John Crowe Ransom, “Good Ships”, in Chills and Fever: Poems, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 54
4. (obsolete, transitive) To deceive or hoodwink (someone); to gull.
   • [H]ee [the king] vvas never ſvvorn to his ovvn particular conſcience and reaſon, but to our conditions as a free people; vvhich requir'd him to give us ſuch Lavvs as our ſelves ſhall chooſe. This the Scots could bring him to, and vvould not be baffl'd vvith the pretence of a Coronation Oath, after...1649, J[ohn] Milton, “Of the Differences in Point of Church Government”, in ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC, pages 162–163
5. (obsolete, transitive) Followed by away or out: to deprive of (something) through cheating or manipulation; also (followed by out of), to deprive of something by cheating or manipulating (someone).
   • [T]he Lavv of God pardoning and unpardoning hath bin ſhamefully branded, for vvant of heed in gloſſing, to have eluded and baffl'd out, all Faith and chaſtity from the marriagebed of that holy ſeed, vvith politick and judicial adulteries.1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], “To the Parlament of England, with the Assembly”, in The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: […], 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], →OCLC

See all 16 meanings of baffle