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Baffle vs Understand - What's the difference?

baffle | understand |

As verbs the difference between baffle and understand

is that baffle is (obsolete) to publicly disgrace, especially of a recreant knight while understand is (lb) to be aware of the meaning of.

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.
  • understand

    English

    Alternative forms

    * understaund (obsolete)

    Verb

  • (lb) To be aware of the meaning of.
  • :
  • :
  • *(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:I understand not what you mean by this.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author= Sam Leith
  • , volume=189, issue=1, page=37, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Where the profound meets the profane , passage=Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths.}}
  • To believe, based on information.
  • :
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
  • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=Foreword citation , passage=‘I understand that the district was considered a sort of sanctuary,’ the Chief was saying. ‘An Alsatia like the ancient one behind the Strand, or the Saffron Hill before the First World War.
  • To impute meaning, character etc. that is not explicitly stated.
  • :
  • :In this sense, the word is usually used in the past participle:
  • ::
  • *(John Locke) (1632-1705)
  • *:The most learned interpreters understood the words of sin, and not of Abel.
  • *
  • *:Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.
  • To stand under; to support.
  • :(Shakespeare)
  • Usage notes

    * Common objects of this verb include text'', ''word(s)'', ''sentence(s)'', ''note(s) , etc. * Rarely, the obsolete past tense form understanded'' may be found, e.g. in the ''Book of Common Prayer'' and ''Thirty-nine Articles of the Anglican Church .

    Synonyms

    * (to know the meaning) apprehend, comprehend, grasp, know, perceive, pick up what someone is putting down, realise, grok * (to believe) believe

    Antonyms

    * misunderstand

    Derived terms

    * I don’t understand * understandable * understanding * understood

    See also

    * explain * why