Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One who or that which baffles.
- noun A partition in a furnace so placed as to aid the convection of heat; a baffle-plate. Rankine, Steam Engine, § 304. Also
baffle . - noun In coal-mining, the lever with which the throttle-valve of a winding-engine is worked.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who, or that which, baffles.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Something that causes one to be
baffled , particularly a difficultpuzzle orriddle .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Creature creator Andrew Bell and puzzle master Chris Yates are proud to present the second installment of their second collaborative 'baffler' project, "Bottle with a Bear Problem":
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I think he had some kind of electronic baffler in there as well.
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But maybe the biggest baffler here is the sheriff's and fair director.
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Bette showed women how to deal with the delicate situation of the brush off (or tease) by sparing him the psych-speak and exiting with a baffler: As Ms. Davis 'Southern belle character drawled in Cabin in the Cotton, "I'd love to kiss you, but I've just washed my hair."
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Many things baffle me, but this morning the big baffler is that a woman married to a nationalist (SDLP) councillor had never heard of sectarianism.
Omagh 10 years on 2008
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Speaking of which, perhaps you can help me understand something that's been a baffler for years: I keep reading that Mozart, squeezed by a deadline, tarted up the "Haffner Serenade" a mite and pawned it off as his 35th symphony.
Wolfgang! Jaime J. Weinman 2007
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I agree, that's a baffler, given our poor performance.
the inevitable 2005
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He called the robbery a baffler, and ruled out insurance fraud, even though Sol Hurwitz is rapaciously rumored to be a dice game degenerate.
White Jazz Ellroy, James, 1948- 1992
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He spent nearly half an hour fitting a baffler to the spout, so that the compressed matter inside wouldn't hiss as it poured out.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle Van Vogt, A. E. 1950
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Besides, sometimes the barricade becomes a compact wall, -- a baffler, unless boat and boatmen can circumvent it, -- unless the nautical carriage can itself be carried about the obstacle, -- can be picked up, shouldered, and made off with.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 59, September, 1862 Various
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