baffling

English

Verb

baffling

1. present participle and gerund of baffle

Adjective

baffling (comparative more baffling, superlative most baffling)

1. Puzzling, perplexing, bewildering.
   • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 160:

     [T]he primitive concept of the generative act was one of awe and worship, accorded to a force which was incomprehensible and baffling.

   • 2021, The Guardian, baffling brexit rules threaten export chaos gove is warned, London: The Guardian:

     Ministers must restart trade negotiations with Brussels immediately to sort out the "baffling" array of post-Brexit rulesand regulations that now threaten much of the UK'sexport trade to the EU

2. frustrating

Derived terms

• bafflingly
• bafflingness
• baffling wind
• unbaffling

 

Translations

puzzling and frustrating

• Bulgarian: объркващ (bg) (obǎrkvašt), разстройващ (bg) (razstrojvašt)
• Finnish: hämmentävä (fi)
• French: déconcertant (fr)
• Japanese: 不可解 (ja) (fukakai)
• Latin: perplexus
• Maori: rutu (of wind), pōkīkī
• Occitan: desmemoriant, desconcertant
• Portuguese: desconcertante (pt), desorientador
• Serbo-Croatian: zbunjujući, rastrojavajući, dekoncentrirajući
• Spanish: desconcertante (es)
• Swedish: förvirrande (sv), förbryllande (sv)

Noun

baffling (plural bafflings)

1. An act of foiling or thwarting.
   • 1831, The Quarterly Review (London):

     […] the contrast of the one determined and still triumphant will of the man, with the transient and vain bafflings of winds or waves, of gods, or monsters […]