baffle Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a flat plate that controls or directs the flow of fluid or energy
    baffle board.
  2. verb be a mystery or bewildering to
    mystify; perplex; bewilder; get; beat; puzzle; pose; amaze; vex; flummox; stick; stupefy; gravel; nonplus; dumbfound.
    • This beats me!
    • Got me--I don't know the answer!
    • a vexing problem
    • This question really stuck me
  3. verb hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of
    thwart; bilk; cross; frustrate; foil; spoil; queer; scotch.
    • What ultimately frustrated every challenger was Ruth's amazing September surge
    • foil your opponent
  4. verb check the emission of (sound)
    regulate.

WordNet

Baf"fle intransitive verb
Etymology
Cf. Lowland Scotch bauchle to treat contemptuously, bauch tasteless, abashed, jaded, Icel. bagr uneasy, poor, or bagr, n., struggle, bægja to push, treat harshly, OF. beffler, beffer, to mock, deceive, dial. G. bäppe mouth, beffen to bark, chide.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Baffled (); present participle & verbal noun Baffling
Definitions
  1. To cause to undergo a disgraceful punishment, as a recreant knight. Obs.
    He by the heels him hung upon a tree, And baffled so, that all which passed by The picture of his punishment might see. Spenser.
  2. To check by shifts and turns; to elude; to foil.
    The art that baffles time's tyrannic claim. Cowper.
  3. 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.
    Syn. -- To balk; thwart; foil; frustrate; defeat.
Baf"fle intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To practice deceit. Obs. Barrow.
  2. To struggle against in vain; as, a ship baffles with the winds. R.
Baf"fle noun
Definitions
  1. A defeat by artifice, shifts, and turns; discomfiture. R. "A baffle to philosophy." South.

Webster 1913