Baffle
['bæf(ə)l] or ['bæfl]
Definition
(noun.) a flat plate that controls or directs the flow of fluid or energy.
(verb.) check the emission of (sound).
Inputed by Kelly--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To cause to undergo a disgraceful punishment, as a recreant knight.
(v. t.) To check by shifts and turns; to elude; to foil.
(v. t.) To check by perplexing; to disconcert, frustrate, or defeat; to thwart.
(v. i.) To practice deceit.
(v. i.) To struggle against in vain; as, a ship baffles with the winds.
(n.) A defeat by artifice, shifts, and turns; discomfiture.
Inputed by Carlo
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Disconcert, frustrate, foil, elude, balk, circumvent.[2]. Confound, bewilder, perplex, out-general, out-manœuvre.
Editor: Shelton
Definition
v.t. to check or make ineffectual: (obs.) to cheat hoodwink bewilder bring to nought: (obs.) to disgrace publicly.—ns. Baf′fle (obs.) confusion check; Baf′fler a bewilderer confounder.—To baffle out of (obs.) to juggle out of anything.
Checker: Tessie
Examples
- Many a wall checked but did not baffle them. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Because it would baffle my efforts to listen. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- From you I have learned all I wish to know, and am now in a position to baffle both your ambition and that of Alcibiades. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- He opened chests and cupboards, such as did not baffle his small experience, and in these he found the contents much better preserved. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- I know their scheme, and will baffle them. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- After that I fell among those thieves, the nine figures, who seemed every evening to do something new to disguise themselves and baffle recognition. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- At the bottom there was a space where two men could go through a hole; and then all the rest of the column was filled with baffle plates. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Her thoughtfulness baffled his cunning scrutiny. Charles Dickens. Hard Times.
- In her animal spirits there was an affluence of life and certainty of flow, such as excited my wonder, while it baffled my comprehension. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- Innocent III died baffled in 1216, and his successor, Honorius III, effected nothing. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- In fact, it was far more the fear of intrusion--the fear of yourself--that baffled me than the fear of Mrs. Yorke. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- I had dared and baffled his fury; I must elude his sorrow: I retired to the door. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- Or baffled, say. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- I see myself baffled at every turn by their untoward effects. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- This, spoken in a cool, tranquil tone, was mortifying and baffling enough. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- It baffles me; it baffles you, it baffles everybody. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- Such words, at least, have been chosen to express what is inexpressible, to describe what baffles description. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- If I succeed, I clear up the mystery, exactly at the point where the mystery baffles us now! Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- The mystery which baffles us, baffles him too. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
Checked by Ives