Other forms: baffled, baffling, baffles
To baffle is to confuse somebody completely. It baffled me, a baffling problem, baffled by the answer.
It is total rather than partial — being baffled is having no idea at all, where being puzzled leaves you working on it. As a noun, a baffle is a plate that blocks or redirects sound or fluid, which is why loudspeakers and exhausts have them. Note that the origin of the verb is uncertain.
1verbbaffleTo confuse somebody completely.
“The strange noise from the engine baffled even the mechanic.”
2nounplateA plate that blocks or redirects sound or fluid.
“Engineers fitted baffles inside the fuel tank to stop the fuel sloshing around.”
baffle is a confusing, or a plate.
Baffle may be a Scots insult. The verb is possibly from Scots bauchle, to disgrace or to treat with contempt, from a noun meaning a worn-out thing or a laughing stock, so baffling someone once meant humiliating them.
French
bafouer — to abuse, revile; to confuse, baffle; to deceive; to flout; to scorn
English, today
baffle
From French bafouer (“to abuse, revile; to confuse, baffle; to deceive; to flout; to scorn”). The origin of the verb is; it is possibly:
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Sharper Verbs