baffle

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• transitive verb To confuse or perplex, especially so as to frustrate or prevent from taking action.
• transitive verb To impede the force or movement of (a fluid).
• noun A usually static device that regulates the flow of a fluid or light.
• noun A partition that prevents interference between sound waves in a loudspeaker.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Disgrace; affront.
• noun Defeat; discomfiture.
• noun Same as baffler, 2.
• noun An artificial obstruction (in the form of a board, plate, or cleat placed in the channel) to the continuous smooth flow of a liquid or gas.
• To disgrace; treat with mockery or contumely; hold up as an object of scorn or contempt; insult; specifically, to subject to indignities, as a recreant knight or traitor.
• To hoodwink; cheat.
• To circumvent by interposing obstacles or difficulties; defeat the efforts, purpose, or success of; frustrate; check; foil; thwart; disconcert; confound: as, the fox baffled his pursuers; to baffle curiosity or endeavor.
• To beat about, as the wind or stray cattle do standing grain or grass; twist irregularly together.
• To practise deceit; shuffle; quibble.
• To struggle ineffectually; strive in vain: as, the ship baffled with the gale.
• In coalmining, to brush out or mix fire-damp with air, to such an extent as to render it non-explosive.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb obsolete To cause to undergo a disgraceful punishment, as a recreant knight.
• transitive verb To check by shifts and turns; to elude; to foil.
• transitive verb To check by perplexing; to disconcert, frustrate, or defeat; to thwart.
• transitive verb (Naut.) one that frequently shifts from one point to another.
• intransitive verb obsolete To practice deceit.
• intransitive verb rare To struggle against in vain.
• noun rare A defeat by artifice, shifts, and turns; discomfiture.
• noun 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.
• noun 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.
• noun (Coal Mining), Local, U. S. A lever for operating the throttle valve of a winding engine.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A device used to dampen the effects of such things as sound, light, or fluid. Specifically, a baffle is a surface which is placed inside an open area to inhibit direct motion from one part to another, without preventing motion altogether.
• noun An architectural feature designed to confuse enemies or make them vulnerable.
• verb Totally bewilder; confuse or perplex.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb check the emission of (sound)
• verb be a mystery or bewildering to
• noun a flat plate that controls or directs the flow of fluid or energy
• verb hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of