PUZZLING • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • 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

... let me keep you," he said, as he saw she still looked at Gibson's retreating figure and that an expression of astonishment was puzzling ...

— Spring Street - A Story of Los Angeles • James H. Richardson

... puzzling to the boys, when Nate, who was always on the job, broke in with a suggestion. "Why don't you fellows telephone down to 'Moose Boone' and ask him if the ...

— The Ranger Boys and the Border Smugglers • Claude A. Labelle

... way back to the station, each with his own thoughts—Stefens puzzling over the cause of the crash, Loring and Mason exchanging quick furtive glances and wondering how long their story would hold up, and Tom wondering how much Roger's changing the power circuits on the radar had to do with the crash of ...

— Danger in Deep Space • Carey Rockwell

... it is so false that it needs no refutation. It is, for example, entirely false that New Testament theology is simple. It is far more true to say that, compared with the systematized theology of the Church, it is bewilderingly complex and puzzling, and how complex and puzzling it is, is indicated by the hundreds of creeds which Protestants have made out of it, each creed claiming, respectively, to be its one and only proper interpretation. Men have only come to think it "simple" in modern ...

— Paradoxes of Catholicism • Robert Hugh Benson

... said, "this is rather puzzling. A moment back you were a Mahajun of Puli, in Marwur, or a Delhi Pathan, or a Wali Dad, or something of that sort, and now you seem to have turned into an Irishman. Can you tell ...

— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 99., October 11, 1890 • Various

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