Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To confuse or bewilder. synonym: perplex.
  • transitive verb To make obscure or mysterious.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To perplex purposely; play on the credulity of; bewilder; befog.

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

  • transitive verb To involve in mystery; to make obscure or difficult to understand.
  • transitive verb To perplex the mind of; to puzzle; to impose upon the credulity of; to baffle.

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

  • verb transitive to thoroughly confuse, befuddle, or bewilder

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

  • verb be a mystery or bewildering to
  • verb make mysterious

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French mystifier : mystère, mystery (from Latin mystērium; see mystery) + -fier, -fy.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French mystifier, from Ancient Greek μυστικός (mystikos, "secret, mystic") + Latin -ficare.

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Examples

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  • On p.224 of Easton Press's "The Three Musketeers" by Dumas, "mystify" is used in the sense of "to play mind games" or "to mess with someone's mind".

    September 14, 2008