'Baffle' definitions:

Definition of 'baffle'

From: WordNet
noun
A flat plate that controls or directs the flow of fluid or energy [syn: baffle, baffle board]
verb
Be a mystery or bewildering to; "This beats me!"; "Got me-- I don't know the answer!"; "a vexing problem"; "This question really stuck me" [syn: perplex, vex, stick, get, puzzle, mystify, baffle, beat, pose, bewilder, flummox, stupefy, nonplus, gravel, amaze, dumbfound]
verb
Hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of; "What ultimately frustrated every challenger was Ruth's amazing September surge"; "foil your opponent" [syn: thwart, queer, spoil, scotch, foil, cross, frustrate, baffle, bilk]
verb
Check the emission of (sound) [syn: baffle, regulate]

Definition of 'Baffle'

From: GCIDE
  • Baffle \Baf"fle\ (b[a^]f"f'l), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Baffled (-f'ld); p. pr. & vb. n. Baffling (-fl[i^]ng).] [Cf. Lowland Scotch bauchle to treat contemptuously, bauch tasteless, abashed, jaded, Icel. b[=a]gr uneasy, poor, or b[=a]gr, n., struggle, b[ae]gja to push, treat harshly, OF. beffler, beffer, to mock, deceive, dial. G. b[aum]ppe mouth, beffen to bark, chide.] [1913 Webster]
  • 1. To cause to undergo a disgraceful punishment, as a recreant knight. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
  • He by the heels him hung upon a tree, And baffled so, that all which passed by The picture of his punishment might see. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. To check by shifts and turns; to elude; to foil. [1913 Webster]
  • The art that baffles time's tyrannic claim. --Cowper. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. To check by perplexing; to disconcert, frustrate, or defeat; to thwart. "A baffled purpose." --De Quincey. [1913 Webster]
  • A suitable scripture ready to repel and baffle them all. --South. [1913 Webster]
  • Calculations so difficult as to have baffled, until within a . . . recent period, the most enlightened nations. --Prescott. [1913 Webster]
  • The mere intricacy of a question should not baffle us. --Locke. [1913 Webster]
  • Baffling wind (Naut.), one that frequently shifts from one point to another. [1913 Webster]
  • Syn: To balk; thwart; foil; frustrate; defeat. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Baffle'

From: GCIDE
  • Baffle \Baf"fle\, v. i.
  • 1. To practice deceit. [Obs.] --Barrow. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. To struggle against in vain; as, a ship baffles with the winds. [R.] [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Baffle'

From: GCIDE
  • Baffle \Baf"fle\, n.
  • 1. A defeat by artifice, shifts, and turns; discomfiture. [R.] "A baffle to philosophy." --South. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  • 2. (Coal Mining) A lever for operating the throttle valve of a winding engine. [Local, U. S.] [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

Synonyms of 'baffle'

From: Moby Thesaurus

Words containing 'Baffle'