puzzling

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

puzzling

1. present participle and gerund of puzzle

Adjective

puzzling (comparative more puzzling, superlative most puzzling)

1. Difficult to understand or explain; enigmatic or confusing; perplexing.
   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. […] A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes. […] But withal there was a perceptible acumen about the man which was puzzling in the extreme.

Synonyms

• knotty

Derived terms

• puzzlingly
• puzzlingness

Translations

difficult to understand or explain; enigmatic or confusing; perplexing

Azerbaijani: müəmmalı (az) Dutch: raadselachtig (nl), verwarrend (nl) Galician: confuso m German: verwirrend (de), rätselhaft (de) Italian: misterioso (it), enigmatico (it) Latin: perplexus Maori: pōkīkī Norwegian: forunderlig (no) Portuguese: intrigante (pt), desconcertante (pt), confuso (pt) Serbo-Croatian: nerazùmljiv (sh), zàmršen (sh), zbùnjujūći

Noun

puzzling (plural puzzlings)

1. Time spent pondering something confusing.