v. t. | 1. | ||||
1. | To cause to undergo a disgraceful punishment, as a recreant knight. | ||||
2. | To check by shifts and turns; to elude; to foil. | ||||
3. | To check by perplexing; to disconcert, frustrate, or defeat; to thwart. Calculations so difficult as to have baffled, until within a . . . recent period, the most enlightened nations.
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v. i. | 1. | To practice deceit. | |||
2. | To struggle against in vain; | ||||
n. | 1. | A defeat by artifice, shifts, and turns; discomfiture. | |||
2. | (Engin.) A deflector, as a plate or wall, so arranged across a furnace or boiler flue as to mingle the hot gases and deflect them against the substance to be heated. | ||||
2. | (Coal Mining) A lever for operating the throttle valve of a winding engine. |
Noun | 1. | baffle - a flat plate that controls or directs the flow of fluid or energy Synonyms: baffle board |
Verb | 1. | baffle - be a mystery or bewildering to; "This beats me!"; "Got me--I don't know the answer!"; "a vexing problem"; "This question really stuck me" |
2. | baffle - hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of; "What ultimately frustrated every challenger was Ruth's amazing September surge"; "foil your opponent" | |
3. | baffle - check the emission of (sound) Synonyms: regulate |