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puzzled

   Also found in: Idioms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia 0.04 sec.
puz·zle  (pzl)
v. puz·zled, puz·zling, puz·zles
v.tr.
1. To baffle or confuse mentally by presenting or being a difficult problem or matter.
2. To clarify or solve (something confusing) by reasoning or study: He puzzled out the significance of the statement.
v.intr.
1. To be perplexed.
2. To ponder over a problem in an effort to solve or understand it.
n.
1. Something, such as a game, toy, or problem, that requires ingenuity and often persistence in solving or assembling.
2. Something that baffles or confuses.
3. The condition of being perplexed; bewilderment.

[Origin unknown.]

puzzler n.
Synonyms: puzzle, perplex, mystify, bewilder, confound
These verbs mean to cause bafflement or confusion. Puzzle suggests difficulty in solving or interpreting something: "The poor creature puzzled me once . . . by a question merely natural and innocent" (Daniel Defoe).
Perplex stresses uncertainty or anxiety, as over reaching an understanding or finding a solution: a dilemma that perplexed the committee.
Mystify implies defying comprehension by obscuring facts: symbolism that mystifies me.
Bewilder emphasizes extreme mental confusion: "The old know what they want; the young are sad and bewildered" (Logan Pearsall Smith).
To confound is to confuse and astonish: God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise (I Corinthians 1:27).
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Adj.1.puzzled - filled with bewilderment; "at a loss to understand those remarks"; "puzzled that she left without saying goodbye"
perplexed - full of difficulty or confusion or bewilderment; "perplexed language"; "perplexed state of the world"

puzzled
Translations
puzzled [ˈpʌzld] puzzle adjperplexe;
to be puzzled about sth → être perplexe au sujet de qch


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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
And yet I can't understand how they could have come here without our seeing them," and the professor shook his head in puzzled despair.
This was an entry on the fly-leaf of a chap-book (one of Patrick Walker's) plainly written by my father's hand and thus conceived: "To my brother Ebenezer on his fifth birthday" Now, what puzzled me was this: That, as my father was of course the younger brother, he must either have made some strange error, or he must have written, before he was yet five, an excellent, clear manly hand of writing.
To say the least, he was a very puzzled Tarzan as he tried to compose himself once more for slumber--a very puzzled and a very nauseated Tarzan.
 
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