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Baffle vs Confront - What's the difference?

baffle | confront |

In intransitive terms the difference between baffle and confront

is that baffle is to struggle in vain while confront is to engage in confrontation.

As verbs the difference between baffle and confront

is that baffle is to publicly disgrace, especially of a recreant knight while confront is to stand or meet facing, especially in competition, hostility or defiance; to come face to face with; to oppose; to challenge.

As a noun baffle

is 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.

baffle

English

Verb

(baffl)
  • (obsolete) To publicly disgrace, especially of a recreant knight.
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , VI.7:
    • He by the heeles him hung upon a tree, / And baffuld so, that all which passed by / The picture of his punishment might see […].
  • (obsolete) To hoodwink or deceive (someone).
    • (Barrow)
  • To bewilder completely; to confuse or perplex.
    • I am baffled by the contradictions and omissions in the instructions.
  • * Prescott
    • calculations so difficult as to have baffled , until within a recent period, the most enlightened nations
  • * John Locke
    • The mere intricacy of a question should not baffle us.
  • * Cowper
    • the art that baffles time's tyrannic claim
  • * South
    • a suitable scripture ready to repel and baffle them all
  • To struggle in vain.
    • A ship baffles with the winds.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Noun

    (en 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.
    • Tanker trucks use baffles to keep the liquids inside from sloshing around.
  • An architectural feature designed to confuse enemies or make them vulnerable.

    • confront

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To stand or meet facing, especially in competition, hostility or defiance; to come face to face with; to oppose; to challenge.
    • We should confront him about the missing money.
  • To deal with.
  • To something bring face to face with.
  • To come up against; to encounter.
  • To engage in confrontation.
  • To set a thing side by side with; to compare.
  • To put a thing facing to; to set in contrast to.

    • Derived terms

    * confrontation * confrontational * confronter * confrontment

    Related terms

    * (heraldry)