PUZZLING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Puzzling

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/pˈəzəlɪŋ/ /pˈəzlɪŋ/ Listen

verb

puzzle v. t. (past & past part. puzzled; pres. part. puzzling)

To perplex; to confuse; to embarrass; to put to a stand; to nonplus. "A very shrewd disputant in those points is dexterous in puzzling others." "He is perpetually puzzled and perplexed amidst his own blunders."

To make intricate; to entangle. "They disentangle from the puzzled skein." "The ways of Heaven are dark and intricate, Puzzled in mazes, and perplexed with error."

To solve by ingenuity, as a puzzle; followed by out; as, to puzzle out a mystery.

Synonyms: To embarrass; perplex; confuse; bewilder; confound. See Embarrass.

Puzzle v. i.

To be bewildered, or perplexed. "A puzzling fool, that heeds nothing."

To work, as at a puzzle; as, to puzzle over a problem.

See images of 'Puzzling'

Etymology of 'Puzzling'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Puzzling" Quotes from Famous Books

... publishers, who coolly expected all amateur journalists to subscribe to their worthless misprints as a matter of fraternal obligation. Mr. Macauley is an extremist on the subject of amateur rating, a fact which explains many otherwise puzzling allusions in his ...

— Writings in the United Amateur, 1915-1922 • Howard Phillips Lovecraft

... a feeling of exultation came to him. While doing puzzling tricks before a mystified audience was enticing work, yet Joe had a longing for the circus. He was almost as much at home high in the air, with nothing but a slack wire or a swaying rope to support him, as he was on the ground. Part of this ...

— Joe Strong on the Trapeze - or The Daring Feats of a Young Circus Performer • Vance Barnum

... conclusion may be that the inscription on the Catstane, VETTA F[ILIUS] VICTI, is a contemporary commemoration of the grandfather of Hengist and Horsa, it may not be easy to suggest a solution of the question free from difficulties as puzzling. At all events the palaeographic features of the inscription seem plainly to associate it with a class of rude post-Roman monuments, of which we have a good many examples in different parts of the kingdom; and it may be remarked that Mr. Skene, who has made this period of our history ...

— Archaeological Essays, Vol. 1 • James Y. Simpson

... the discovery was like the lightning-flash across a nocturnal landscape. Thus far these momentary illuminations had served only to reveal the strangeness of the intervening country: each fresh observation seemed to increase the sum-total of his ignorance. Her simplicity of outline was more puzzling than a complex surface. One may conceivably work one's way through a labyrinth; but Alexa's candor was like a snow-covered plain where, the road once lost, there are no landmarks ...

— The Touchstone • Edith Wharton

... I was yet puzzling over this phenomenon when he again raked out the Panama on the end of the hunting-crop he carried, dusted it as before, looking about him the while with a bewildered air, and setting it firmly upon his head, came down the path. He was a tall young fellow, scrupulously neat and well groomed ...

— My Lady Caprice • Jeffrey Farnol

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