PUZZLE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Puzzle

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/pˈəzəl/ Listen

noun

puzzle n.

Something which perplexes or embarrasses; especially, a toy or a problem contrived for testing ingenuity; also, something exhibiting marvelous skill in making.

The state of being puzzled; perplexity; as, to be in a puzzle.

verb

puzzle v. t. (past & past part. puzzled; pres. part. puzzling)

To perplex; to confuse; to embarrass; to put to a stand; to nonplus. "A very shrewd disputant in those points is dexterous in puzzling others." "He is perpetually puzzled and perplexed amidst his own blunders."

To make intricate; to entangle. "They disentangle from the puzzled skein." "The ways of Heaven are dark and intricate, Puzzled in mazes, and perplexed with error."

To solve by ingenuity, as a puzzle; followed by out; as, to puzzle out a mystery.

Synonyms: To embarrass; perplex; confuse; bewilder; confound. See Embarrass.

Puzzle v. i.

To be bewildered, or perplexed. "A puzzling fool, that heeds nothing."

To work, as at a puzzle; as, to puzzle over a problem.

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Etymology of 'Puzzle'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Puzzle" Quotes from Famous Books

... an ethical scheme clearing up on principles of poetic justice the most perplexed and awful problems in the world, it throws streams of light through the abysses of evil, gives dramatic solution to many a puzzle, and, abstractly considered, charms the understanding and the conscience. As a philosophical dogma answering to some strange, vague passages in human nature and experience, it echoes with dreamy sweetness through the deep mystic chambers of our being. As the ...

— The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger

... a strange puzzle to the Ion children: no blessing asked at the table, no gathering of the family morning or evening for prayer or praise or the reading of ...

— Elsie's children • Martha Finley

... Val. "That shows our man to be industriously at his task. No, no explanation now; on the twenty-seventh of May we'll come again, and the drain itself shall furnish a solution to the puzzle." ...

— The President - A novel • Alfred Henry Lewis

... world were at their wits' end; scientists threw up their hands in despair. The Plague was an insoluble puzzle—enigmatical, utterly inexplicable, beyond the knowledge ...

— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, November, 1930 • Various

... first sat down. Nowhere could I discern a single ray of light. Then in came Mirpah, and when she begged of me to tell her the story, I was glad to do so, remembering how often she had helped me through a puzzle in days gone by—but none of them of such magnitude as this one. So I told her everything as far as it was known to myself. After that we discussed the whole case carefully step by step. The immediate result of this ...

— The Argosy - Vol. 51, No. 6, June, 1891 • Various

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