BAFFLING
baffling, elusive, knotty, problematic, problematical, tough
(adjective) 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”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Verb
baffling
present participle of baffle
Adjective
baffling (comparative more baffling, superlative most baffling)
Puzzling, perplexing, bewildering.
frustrating
Noun
baffling (plural bafflings)
An act of foiling or thwarting.
Source: Wiktionary
Baf"fling, a.
Definition: Frustrating; discomfiting; disconcerting; as, baffling
currents, winds, tasks.
– Bafflingly, adv.
– Bafflingness, n.
BAFFLE
Baf"fle, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Baffled (p. pr. & vb. n. Baffling (.]
Etym: [Cf. Lowland Scotch bauchle to treat contemptuously, bauch
tasteless, abashed, jaded, Icel. bagr uneasy, poor, or bagr, n.,
struggle, bægja to push, treat harshly, OF. beffler, beffer, to mock,
deceive, dial. G. bäppe 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. "A baffled purpose." 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.
Baf"fle, v. i.
1. To practice deceit. [Obs.] Barrow.
2. To struggle against in vain; as, a ship baffles with the winds.
[R.]
Baf"fle, n.
Definition: A defeat by artifice, shifts, and turns; discomfiture. [R.] "A
baffle to philosophy." South.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition