baffle
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: engineering
natural-sciences
nautical
physical-sciences
technology
transport
Etymology: The origin of the verb is uncertain; it is possibly:
* from French bafouer, baffoüer (“to abuse, revile; to confuse, baffle; to deceive; to flout; to scorn”), imitative of someone making a disdainful sound by expelling air quickly through pouted lips (compare Occitan baf (interjection expressing disdain)); or
* from French befer, beffer, beffler (“(obsolete) to deceive; to mock, ridicule”) (compare Old French befe, beffe, buffe (“deception; mockery”); beferie (“deceit; quibbling”)), possibly from bafouer: see above.
The noun is derived from the verb.
Cognates
* Italian beffare (“(verb) to deride, mock”), beffa (“(noun) banter; mockery”)
* Occitan bafar (“(verb) to deride, mock”), bafa (“(noun) banter; mockery”)
* Old Spanish bafa (modern Spanish befa (“(noun) banter; mockery”))
* Spanish befar (“(verb) to deride, mock”)
Inflected forms:
form: baffles
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: baffling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: baffled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: baffled
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: baffle
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: baffle
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: baffled
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: baffle
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: bafflest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: baffled
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: baffledst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: baffles
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: baffleth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: baffled
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: baffle
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: baffled
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: baffle
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: baffled
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: baffle
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: baffling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: baffled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: baffol
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: bafful
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: baffles
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To confuse or perplex (someone) completely; to bewilder, to confound, to puzzle.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: I am baffled by the contradictions and omissions in the instructions.
They were baffled as to how the confusion could have arisen.
[T]he full, Entire knovvledge of it [the gospel] may be one Principal Part of our Felicity and Bleſſedneſs hereafter. All thoſe Heights and Depths vvhich vve novv ſtand ſo much amazed at, and vvhich ſo confound and baffle the ſubtleſt and moſt Piercing Apprehenſion, ſhall then be made Clear, Open and Familiar to us.
VVhen the Mind, by inſenſible degrees, has brought it ſelf to Attention and cloſe Thinking, it vvill be able to copie vvith Difficulties, and maſter them vvithout any Prejudice to it ſelf, and then it may go on roundly. Every abſtruſe Problem, every intricate Queſtion vvill not baffle, diſcourage or break it.
[A]s their calendar, at the time of the Conquest, was found to correspond with the European, (making allowance for the subsequent Gregorian reform,) they would seem to have adopted the shorter period of twelve days and a half, which brought them, within an almost inappreciable fraction, to the exact length of the tropical year, as established by the most accurate observations. […] Such was the astonishing precision displayed by the Aztecs, or, perhaps, by their more polished Toltec predecessors, in these computations, so difficult as to have baffled, till a comparatively recent period, the most enlightened nations of Christendom!
There's a riddle now might baffle all the lawyers backed by the ghosts of the whole line of judges:—like a hawk's beak it pecks my brain.
gloss: To defeat, frustrate, or thwart (someone or their efforts, plans, etc.); to confound, to foil.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
transitive
examples: 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 Parlement hath bin deliberatly framing, vvhat a ridiculous and contemptible thing a Parlament vvould ſoon be, […]
It vvas the very Courſe vvhich our Saviour [Jesus] himſelf took, vvhen the Devil plied him vvith Temptation: Still he had a ſuitable Scripture ready to repel and baffle them all, one after another; every pertinent Text urged home being a direct Stab to a Temptation.
It hath always been my way to baffle reproach with silence; though I cannot but observe the disingenuous proceedings of this gentleman, who is not content to asperse my writings, but hath wounded, through my sides, those eminent and worthy citizens, Mr. John Morphew, and Mr. Bernard Lintot.
Chartophylax then obſerved hovv fatally human ſagacity vvas ſometimes baffled, and hovv often the moſt valuable diſcoveries are made by chance.
The meek intelligence of thoſe dear eyes / (Bleſt be the art that can immortalize, / The art that baffles time's tyrannic claim / To quench it) here ſhines on me ſtill the ſame.
Mrs. Felix Lorraine looked at her noble relatives, and shrugged up her shoulders with an air which baffleth all description.
He is […] forgiving to a degree that might lead us to call him easy, but for a consistency that never seemeth to yield to any influence of season, events, or hopes. Truly, this is a man that baffleth all my knowledge!
Long before he [William III of England] reached manhood he knew how to keep secrets, how to baffle curiosity by dry and guarded answers, how to conceal all passions under the same show of grave tranquillity.
Elizabeth [I], it might have been thought, would have had no particular objection; but Elizabeth had aims of her own which baffled calculation.
Yet, more Love's forceful course / Confirms my faithful will and confidence, / The more thou bafflest me with coy pretence.
It may have been the failure of Christianity to emancipate itself from expiatory theories of moral responsibility, guilt, innocence, reward, punishment, and the rest of it, that baffled its intention of changing the world.
[S]he besought them to bring her a live sphinx; and therefore they went to the menageries, and then to the forests and the desert places, and yet could find no sphinx. […] But they were not men that it is easy to baffle, and at last they found a sphinx in a desert at evening watching a ruined temple whose gods she had eaten hundreds of years ago when her hunger was on her.
gloss: To defeat, frustrate, or thwart (someone or their efforts, plans, etc.); to confound, to foil.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
specifically
transitive
examples: "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."
gloss: To dampen, muffle, restrain, or otherwise control (a fluid, or waves travelling through a fluid such as light or sound).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To deceive or hoodwink (someone); to gull.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: [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 that Epiſcopacy had for many yeares bin ſettl'd there.
And yet they cry out ſacrilege, that men vvill not be gulld and baffl'd the tenth of thir eſtates by giving credit to frivolous pretences of divine right.
[A]t laſt he vvas driven to confeſs the Truth, told the horrid Bargain he had made, and hovv the Devil often promis'd him a Covv, but never gave him one, except that ſeveral Times in the Morning early he found a Covv put into his Yard, but it alvvays prov'd to belong to ſome of his Neighbours: […] if he [the Devil] had not had a Mind to cheat or baffle the poor Man, vvhat need he have taken a Covv ſo near home?
gloss: 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).
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: [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.
[A]ll VVriters of Ethics have uniformly declared no ſervility to be ſo ſordid and intolerable, as that of the vicious man to his Paſſions and Luſts. Top the latter, he confronts the miſcheif of being a ſlave to every man elſe; for ſuch he certainly is, vvhom the fear of ſuffering can baffle out of any thing he thinks juſt and honeſt.
Parents vvill not be baffled out of their children by impudent gentlemen; nor is it fit they ſhould.
gloss: To expend effort or struggle in vain.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The ship, baffling with the winds, moved not an inch.
[He] let the Pandours baffle about, checked only by the fortified Towns, and more and more submerge the Hill Country.
gloss: To argue or complain in a petty or trivial manner; to quibble.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
examples: But if any one of thoſe ſharp arrovvs of divine truth vvhich are ſhot from heaven, vvhich thou haſt heard of, ſeen, and received into thy breſt, vvhich thou canſt vvith no colour of reaſon deny, or repel, and vvhich vvith much adoe thou baffleſt and ſhuffleſt off to a kind of cavilling unbelief; I ſay, if but one of them had vvell fixed it ſelfe upon thy heart and conſcience, it vvould move thee to the ſpeedy thoughts and eſſays of repentance; […]
Were it not strangely absurd and unhandsome to say, I cannot wait on God, because I must speak with a friend; […] [I]s it then just or seemly, by such comparisons to disparage his favor, by such pretences to baffle with his goodness?
gloss: A device used to dampen, muffle, restrain, or otherwise control the movement of a fluid, or waves travelling through a fluid such as light or sound; specifically, a surface positioned inside an open area to inhibit direct motion from one place to another without preventing motion altogether.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Tanker trucks use baffles to keep the liquids inside from sloshing around.
gloss: A lever for operating the throttle valve of a winding engine.
pos: noun
tags: US
countable
dialectal
uncountable
gloss: A device to prevent the spreading of sound or light.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: sound baffle
At Hackney Downs, the sun baffle and overhanging eaves completely shade the signal room from direct sunlight, and the whole of the sky down to the horizon is hidden from the signalman's view.
gloss: A barrier designed to obstruct and confuse enemies, rendering them vulnerable.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: An argument or objection based on an ambiguity of wording or similar trivial circumstance; a minor complaint; a quibble.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
examples: As to Nonplus an Ariſtotle vvould look, not only like a Slur to a particular Philoſopher, but like a Baffle to Philoſophy it ſelf.
Derived words: bafflectomy
bafflestone
baffled
bafflegab
bafflement
baffler
baffling
bafflingly
baffling wind
baffound
unbaffle
unbaffleable
unbaffled
baffle painting
Translations:
lang: Finnish
word: hämmennys