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Bemuse vs Baffle - What's the difference?

bemuse | baffle |

In lang=en terms the difference between bemuse and baffle

is that bemuse is to confuse or bewilder while baffle is to struggle in vain.

As verbs the difference between bemuse and baffle

is that bemuse is to confuse or bewilder while baffle is (obsolete) to publicly disgrace, especially of a recreant knight.

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.

bemuse

English

Verb

(bemus)
  • To confuse or bewilder.
  • * 1735' A parson much '''be-mus'd in beer. — Alexander Pope, ''Satires of Dr. Donne versified
  • * 1771' [With] fairy tales '''bemused the shepherd lies. — James Foot, ''Penseroso
  • * 1847' The bad metaphysics with which they '''bemuse themselves. — Hugh Miller, ''First Impressions of England and its people
  • (archaic, humorous) To devote to the Muses.
  • * 1705' When those incorrigible things, Poets, are once irrecoverably '''Be-mus'd . — Alexander Pope, ''Letters

    • 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.