empuzzle

English

Etymology

From em- +‎ puzzle.

Verb

empuzzle (third-person singular simple present empuzzles, present participle empuzzling, simple past and past participle empuzzled)

1. (archaic) To puzzle.
   • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica‎^[1], London: Edw. Dod & Nath. Ekins, published 1650, Book I, Chapter 1, p. 1:

     It hath empuzzeled the enquiries of others to apprehend, and enforced them unto strange conceptions, to make out how without fear or doubt she [Eve] could discourse with such a creature, or hear a Serpent speak, without suspition of imposture.

   • 1822, William Tennant, The Thane of Fife‎^[2], Edinburgh: Archibald Constable, Canto II, Stanza 64, p. 83:

     They twist and trip and intervolve it well,
     Flinging their phasms fantastically high,
     Circling her chair with maze inscrutable,
     Not to be follow’d by th’ empuzzled eye.

References

• “empuzzle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.