baffled

[ baf-uhld ]

adjective

1. bewildered or perplexed; puzzled:

   I went to bed shaking my head, completely baffled and amazed at the strange turn the day had taken.

2. equipped with one or more baffles, or structures to obstruct the movement of fluids, sound, etc.:

   Any spraying operations shall be done within a baffled or enclosed area of the solvent cleaning machine.

3. thwarted:

   “Every anarchist is a baffled dictator,” wrote Mussolini.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of anticipate ( def ).

Other Words From

• un·baf·fled adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of baffled¹

baffle ( def ) + -ed ²( def )

Example Sentences

It lassoed itself around the baffle and began slowly ascending.

From Science News For Students

The researchers watched hours of video footage to see how well the baffle deterred the brown tree snakes.

From Science News For Students

Testing brown tree snake skills could help design better baffles or other tools to protect endangered birds on Guam, Savidge says.

From Science News For Students

That baffled line about the male psyche, delivered by 28-year-old stand-up comedian Yang Li last year, has become a catch-phrase for feminists in China.

From Quartz

Using a single, large, lasso-like grip allows the brown tree snake to climb wider trees — or baffles, explains study coauthor Bruce Jayne, a biologist at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio.

From Science News

Servis, a general contractor, was baffled by how introverted Stone acted.

From The Daily Beast

Still other critics are baffled that Borges was influenced by such strange and disparate sources.

From The Daily Beast

Martin Amis is not baffled by the modern world; he observes it with precision.

From The Daily Beast

Baffled by the jargon-heavy consumer information manual, I chatted with Cheryl Luptowski from the NSF consumer affairs office.

From The Daily Beast

Putin said in late April that he was baffled that the Americans were targeting the Russian oligarchs.

From The Daily Beast

There seemed the flavour of some strange authority in her that baffled all approach to the former intimacy.

From Project Gutenberg

And he never cared whether she was looking through the glass or whether she was staring, baffled, at the rock.

From Project Gutenberg

This discovery was one of the great feats of the human mind; it baffled the wits of the best men for thousands of years.

From Project Gutenberg

Time and again their efforts were baffled by new falls, but always the same persistent eager spirit drove them back to their toil.

From Project Gutenberg

But now daily a fresh recognition of her continued imprisonment, baffled her attempt to look at things with clear eyes.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• dubious
• hesitant
• indecisive
• puzzled
• skeptical
• suspicious
• tentative
• uncertain
• unconvinced
• undecided
• unsettled
• unsure