Search Result for "baffling": 
Wordnet 3.0

ADJECTIVE (1)

1. making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe;
- Example: "a baffling problem"
- Example: "I faced the knotty problem of what to have for breakfast"
- Example: "a problematic situation at home"
[syn: baffling, elusive, knotty, problematic, problematical, tough]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Baffle \Baf"fle\ (b[a^]f"f'l), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Baffled (-f'ld); p. pr. & vb. n. Baffling (-fl[i^]ng).] [Cf. Lowland Scotch bauchle to treat contemptuously, bauch tasteless, abashed, jaded, Icel. b[=a]gr uneasy, poor, or b[=a]gr, n., struggle, b[ae]gja to push, treat harshly, OF. beffler, beffer, to mock, deceive, dial. G. b[aum]ppe mouth, beffen to bark, chide.] [1913 Webster] 1. To cause to undergo a disgraceful punishment, as a recreant knight. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] 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. [1913 Webster] 2. To check by shifts and turns; to elude; to foil. [1913 Webster] The art that baffles time's tyrannic claim. --Cowper. [1913 Webster] 3. To check by perplexing; to disconcert, frustrate, or defeat; to thwart. "A baffled purpose." --De Quincey. [1913 Webster] A suitable scripture ready to repel and baffle them all. --South. [1913 Webster] Calculations so difficult as to have baffled, until within a . . . recent period, the most enlightened nations. --Prescott. [1913 Webster] The mere intricacy of a question should not baffle us. --Locke. [1913 Webster] Baffling wind (Naut.), one that frequently shifts from one point to another. [1913 Webster] Syn: To balk; thwart; foil; frustrate; defeat. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Baffling \Baf"fling\ (b[a^]f"fl[i^]ng), a. Frustrating; discomfiting; disconcerting; as, baffling currents, winds, tasks. -- Baff"ling*ly, adv. -- Baff"ling*ness, n. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

baffling adj 1: 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" [syn: baffling, elusive, knotty, problematic, problematical, tough]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

21 Moby Thesaurus words for "baffling": bewildering, bothering, confounding, confusing, defeating, discomposing, disconcerting, dismaying, distracting, disturbing, embarrassing, enigmatic, frustrating, intricate, mysterious, mystifying, perplexing, perturbing, problematic, puzzling, upsetting