maze

[meyz]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR maze ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a confusing network of intercommunicating paths or passages; labyrinth.

any complex system or arrangement that causes bewilderment, confusion, or perplexity: Her petition was lost in a maze of bureaucratic red tape.

a state of bewilderment or confusion.

a winding movement, as in dancing.

verb (used with object), mazed, maz·ing.

Chiefly Dialect. to daze, perplex, or stupefy.

Origin of maze

1250–1300; Middle English mase, noun use of aphetic variant of amasen to amaze

Related formsmazed·ly

[meyzd-lee, mey-zid-] /ˈmeɪzd li, ˈmeɪ zɪd-/, adverbmazed·ness, nounmaze·like, adjectivein·ter·maze, verb (used with object), in·ter·mazed, in·ter·maz·ing.

Can be confusedmaize maze

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for maze

convolution, puzzle, twist, winding, perplexity, tangle, web, network, hodgepodge, muddle, mesh, imbroglio, knot, entanglement, morass, bewilderment, skein, uncertainty, quandary, intricacy

Examples from the Web for maze

Contemporary Examples of maze

Everything legal and worth making money from is like a maze.
Rawcus Is the Rapper Behind the Viral ‘White People Crazy’ Video
Rich Goldstein
January 29, 2014
The maze ends in an expansive Zen garden, complete with a pebble pool-pit and a vast mirror along one wall.
The Royal Academy Wants You to Finish This Artwork
Chloë Ashby
January 24, 2014
But what was it like for the participants who tried to complete the maze?
Are You Smarter Than a Mouse? Excerpt from Smarter: The New Science of Building Brain Power
Dan Hurley
January 10, 2014
Center court was where the eleven arms of the maze met in the middle.
Are You Smarter Than a Mouse? Excerpt from Smarter: The New Science of Building Brain Power
Dan Hurley
January 10, 2014
What is most important is that Brody has been sent into a maze of tunnels, if you like.
Damian Lewis Spills On ‘Homeland’s’ Shocking Plot Twist and Brody’s Return
Andrew Romano
October 14, 2013

Historical Examples of maze

She was lost, for the instant, in a maze of disagreeable reflection.
Grace Harlowe's Return to Overton Campus
Jessie Graham Flower
To him the winter passed in a maze of doubt and self-contempt.
The Incomplete Amorist
E. Nesbit
Paris was going on—all that muddle and maze of worried people.
The Incomplete Amorist
E. Nesbit
One of the first things he did to make himself famous was to build a maze.
Classic Myths
Mary Catherine Judd
The tug's hull was practically filled with a maze of machinery.
The Cruise of the Dry Dock
T. S. Stribling

British Dictionary definitions for maze

maze

noun

a complex network of paths or passages, esp one with high hedges in a garden, designed to puzzle those walking through itCompare labyrinth (def. 1)

a similar system represented diagrammatically as a pattern of lines

any confusing network of streets, pathways, etca maze of paths

a state of confusion

verb

an archaic or dialect word for amaze

Derived Formsmazelike, adjectivemazement, noun

Word Origin for maze

C13: see amaze

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for maze

c.1300, "delusion, bewilderment" (also as a verb, "stupefy, daze"), possibly from Old English *mæs, which is suggested by the compound amasod "amazed" and verb amasian "to confound, confuse" (see amaze). Perhaps related to Norwegian dialectal mas "exhausting labor," Swedish masa "to be slow or sluggish." Meaning "labyrinth" first recorded late 14c.