baffle

Definitions

1. 1.To check by shifts and turns; to elude; to foil. The art that baffles time's tyrannic claim. Cowper.
2. 2.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.
3. 3.To practice deceit. [Obs.] Barrow.
4. 4.To struggle against in vain; as, a ship baffles with the winds. [R.]
5. 5.A defeat by artifice, shifts, and turns; discomfiture. [R.] "A baffle to philosophy." South.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

Synonyms

Related questions

• What does "baffle" mean?

Reverse-dictionary questions

Definition-first questions whose answer is baffle.

• What is to check by shifts and turns; to elude; to foil. The art that baffles time's tyrannic claim. Cowper called?
• What is to struggle against in vain; as, a ship baffles with the winds. [R.] called?
• What is a defeat by artifice, shifts, and turns; discomfiture. [R.] "A baffle to philosophy." South called?