PERPLEXING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Perplexing

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/pərplˈɛksɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Perplex v. t. (past & past part. perplexed; pres. part. perplexing)

To involve; to entangle; to make intricate or complicated, and difficult to be unraveled or understood; as, to perplex one with doubts. "No artful wildness to perplex the scene." "What was thought obscure, perplexed, and too hard for our weak parts, will lie open to the understanding in a fair view."

To embarrass; to puzzle; to distract; to bewilder; to confuse; to trouble with ambiguity, suspense, or anxiety. "Perplexd beyond self-explication." "We are perplexed, but not in despair." "We can distinguish no general truths, or at least shall be apt to perplex the mind."

To plague; to vex; to torment.

Synonyms: To entangle; involve; complicate; embarrass; puzzle; bewilder; confuse; distract. See Embarrass.

adjective

Perplexing adj. Embarrassing; puzzling; troublesome. "Perplexing thoughts."

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Etymology of 'Perplexing'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Perplexing" Quotes from Famous Books

... day of their marriage, most like a wilful, haughty, angry boy, but not like a profligate. On other points he is not so easily defended; and Shakspeare, we see, has not defended, but corrected him. The latter part of the play is more perplexing than pleasing. We do not, indeed, repine with Dr. Johnson, that Bertram, after all his misdemeanors, is "dismissed to happiness;" but, not withstanding the clever defence that has been made for him, he has ...

— Characteristics of Women - Moral, Poetical, and Historical • Anna Jameson

... for the presidency was John C. Fremont, and there was a great stir and bustle among the people who were supposed to support him, but Buchanan won easily, and at once found himself in the midst of the most perplexing difficulties. Kansas was in a state of civil war; two days after his inauguration the Supreme Court handed down the famous Dred Scott decision, declaring the right of any slave-holder to take his slaves as property into any territory; while the young ...

— American Men of Action • Burton E. Stevenson

... their lives men no doubt follow the line of least resistance, and Simon Newcomb here we may be sure was no exception; thus he chose to deal in his work with the heaviest and most perplexing problems with which the human intellect can engage. I do not attempt to describe or estimate what he achieved. Only a few select minds in his generation were capable of that. At his death the tributes of those who had ...

— The Last Leaf - Observations, during Seventy-Five Years, of Men and Events in America - and Europe • James Kendall Hosmer

... better, and I ride about again. My office here is no sinecure, so many parties and difficulties of every kind; but I will do what I can. Prince Mavrocordato is an excellent person, and does all in his power; but his situation is perplexing in the extreme. Still we have great hopes of the success of the contest. You will hear, however, more of public news from plenty of quarters: for I have ...

— A Publisher and His Friends • Samuel Smiles

... conversely a ground of censure—rendering (in the opinions of these three members) further military proceedings absolutely necessary. They,—who are most aware of the unconstitutional frame of this Court or Board, and of the perplexing situation in which its members must have found themselves placed,—will have the least difficulty in excusing this inconsistency: it is however to be regretted; particularly in the instance of the Earl of Moira;—who, disapproving both of the Convention and Armistice, has assigned for that disapprobation ...

— The Prose Works of William Wordsworth • William Wordsworth

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