puzzled

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpʌ.zl̩d/

• Audio (US):

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Adjective

puzzled (comparative more puzzled, superlative most puzzled)

1. Confused or perplexed.
   • 1785, William Cowper, “Book III. The Garden.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson;  […], →OCLC, page 98:

     They diſentangle from the puzzled ſkein / In vvhich obſcurity has vvrapp'd them up, / The threads of politic and ſhrevvd deſign / That ran through all his purpoſes, […]

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XI, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     [W]hen the day of the departure came, between her two customs of laughing and crying, Miss Sedley was greatly puzzled how to act.

   • 1920, Herman Cyril McNeile, chapter 1, in Bulldog Drummond:

     Once or twice he scratched his head, and stared out of the window with a puzzled frown. And each time, after a brief survey of the other side of Half Moon Street, he turned back again to the breakfast table with a grin.

   • 1936, J. R. R. Tolkien, Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics, Norwood, Pa.: Norwood Editions, published 1976, page 17:

     They could not, it was said, keep Scandinavian bogies and the Scriptures separate in their puzzled brains.

Derived terms

• puzzledly
• puzzledness

Translations

confused or perplexed

Catalan: perplex Dutch: verward (nl), verbijsterd (nl) Esperanto: konfuzita Finnish: ymmällään (fi), hämmentynyt (fi) French: perplexe (fr) German: verblüfft (de), verdutzt (de), perplex (de) Hebrew: מְבוּלְבָּל m (mevulbal) Hungarian: zavart (hu), tanácstalan (hu) Italian: perplesso (it) Macedonian: збу́нет (zbúnet) Maori: raumahara, pōrahu, pōrahurahu Ottoman Turkish: شاشقین (şaşkın) Portuguese: perplexo (pt) Russian: озада́ченный (ru) (ozadáčennyj) Spanish: confundido (es), perplejo (es), desconcertado (es) Swedish: förbryllad (sv), villrådig (sv) Tày: bá bảy

Verb

puzzled

1. simple past and past participle of puzzle