baffling : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: baffling	by the DICT Development Group
3 results for baffling
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
baffling adj making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe; "a baffling problem"; "I faced the knotty problem of what to have for breakfast"; "a problematic situation at home" Synonym(s): baffling, elusive, knotty, problematic, problematical, tough
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Baffling \Baf"fling\ (b[acr]f"fl[icr]ng), a. Frustrating; discomfiting; disconcerting; as, baffling currents, winds, tasks. -- {Baff"lingly}, adv. -- {Baff"lingness}, n.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Baffle \Baf"fle\ (b[acr]f"f'l), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Baffled} (-f'ld); p. pr. & vb. n. {Baffling} (-fl[icr]ng).] [Cf. Lowland Scotch bauchle to treat contemptuously, bauch tasteless, abashed, jaded, Icel. b[be]gr uneasy, poor, or b[be]gr, n., struggle, b[91]gja to push, treat harshly, OF. beffler, beffer, to mock, deceive, dial. G. b[84]ppe mouth, beffen to bark, chide.] 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. [bd]A baffled purpose.[b8] --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. {Baffling wind} (Naut.), one that frequently shifts from one point to another. Syn: To balk; thwart; foil; frustrate; defeat.