BAFFLE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Baffle

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/bˈæfəl/ Listen

noun

Baffle n.

1.

A defeat by artifice, shifts, and turns; discomfiture. (R.) "A baffle to philosophy."

2.

(Engin.)

(a)

A deflector, as a plate or wall, so arranged across a furnace or boiler flue as to mingle the hot gases and deflect them against the substance to be heated.

(b)

A grating or plate across a channel or pipe conveying water, gas, or the like, by which the flow is rendered more uniform in different parts of the cross section of the stream; used in measuring the rate of flow, as by means of a weir.

3.

(Coal Mining) A lever for operating the throttle valve of a winding engine. (Local, U. S.)

verb

Baffle v. t. (past & past part. baffled; pres. part. baffling)

1.

To cause to undergo a disgraceful punishment, as a recreant knight. (Obs.) "He by the heels him hung upon a tree, And baffled so, that all which passed by The picture of his punishment might see."

2.

To check by shifts and turns; to elude; to foil. "The art that baffles time's tyrannic claim."

3.

To check by perplexing; to disconcert, frustrate, or defeat; to thwart. "A baffled purpose." "A suitable scripture ready to repel and baffle them all." "Calculations so difficult as to have baffled, until within a... recent period, the most enlightened nations." "The mere intricacy of a question should not baffle us."

Baffling wind (Naut.), one that frequently shifts from one point to another.

Synonyms: To balk; thwart; foil; frustrate; defeat.

Baffle v. i.

1.

To practice deceit. (Obs.)

2.

To struggle against in vain; as, a ship baffles with the winds. (R.)

See images of 'Baffle'

Etymology of 'Baffle'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Baffle" Quotes from Famous Books

... the Parable of the Sower (Appendix 3) and the Seven Ages of Man (Appendix 4). (The task will largely or altogether baffle you, but will involve minute study ...

— The Century Vocabulary Builder • Creever & Bachelor

... secret of the hidden niche all these months, and neither stain, scar, nor any sign left by Hilary or Flora betrayed it now. Surely this was the very panel Flora had named. Yet dumbly, rigidly it denied the truth, for Hilary, having reaped its spoil, had, to baffle his jailors, cunningly made it fast. And time was flying! Tremblingly the searcher glanced again to the door, to the screen, to the veranda windows—though these Israel had rudely curtained—and then tried another square, keenly harkening the while to all sounds and ...

— Kincaid's Battery • George W. Cable

... his own. Food and the progress of the train were the subjects most generally treated; many joined to discuss these who otherwise would hold their tongues. One small knot had no better occupation than to worm out of me my name; and the more they tried, the more obstinately fixed I grew to baffle them. They assailed me with artful questions and insidious offers of correspondence in the future; but I was perpetually on my guard, and parried their assaults with inward laughter. I am sure Dubuque would have given me ten dollars for the secret. He owed me far more, had he ...

— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition - Vol. 2 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... it was vain. The insurgents fled from the fatal spot, leaving 500 of their dead and dying behind them, and at nightfall Henry Joy M'Cracken found himself a fugitive and a ruined man. For some weeks he managed to baffle the bloodhounds on his track, but he was ultimately arrested and tried by court-martial in Belfast, on the 17th July, 1798. On the evening of the same day he was executed. We have it on the best authority that ...

— Speeches from the Dock, Part I • Various

... being discreet. I know this cross eyed man you speak of, and know that he is the secretary of one of the most cruel and bloody of the Council; and it was but yesterday that I escaped from his hands almost by a miracle. And I would now, if I could, baffle the villain again. I suppose they are ...

— By Pike and Dyke: A Tale of the Rise of the Dutch Republic • G.A. Henty

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