bemuse

Verb

bemuse (third-person singular simple present bemuses, present participle bemusing, simple past and past participle bemused)

1. (transitive) To confuse or bewilder.
   • [With] fairy tales bemused the shepherd lies.1771, James Foot, Penseroso
   • the bad metaphysics with which they bemuse themselves1847, Hugh Miller, First Impressions of England and its people
2. (proscribed, sometimes, transitive) To be amused, especially sardonically.
3. (archaic, humorous) To devote to the Muses.
   • When those incorrigible things, Poets, are once irrecoverably Be-mus'd1705, Alexander Pope, Letters
4. (obsolete, slang, transitive) To make drunk; to intoxicate.
   • a parson much be-mus'd in beer1735, Alexander Pope, Satires of Dr. Donne versified
   • This old man generally bemused himself in beer, once a fortnight.1784, Edward Harwood, The Case of the Rev. Dr Harwood, page 27