bafflingly adverb
a bafflingly complex explanation
Recent Examples on the Web
//More Stories Some of these plot elements come straight from Lethem’s novel, but many don’t—and the ways in which Norton digresses from the original are both radical and baffling.
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David Sims, The Atlantic, "Motherless Brooklyn Is a Passion Project Without Heart," 31 Oct. 2019
//The Dem candidates are smart people, which makes their choices of subjects so baffling.
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Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, "Doc's Morning Line: Here's why I can't wait for the UC Bearcats basketball season to start," 15 Oct. 2019
//Yet when Kallaugher contacted Bank of America about his loss, the bank, one of the largest and richest in the world, refused to refund the money, offering only a series of baffling reasons for its denial.
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BostonGlobe.com, "His chain saw warranty coverage wasn’t cutting it - The Boston Globe," 1 Oct. 2019
//That memo wasn’t leaked to The Washington Post or The New York Times by the deep state; it was released by the White House itself in a baffling attempt at damage control.
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Matt Ford, The New Republic, "Trump’s Defense Is Not Ready for Prime Time," 30 Sep. 2019
//After a baffling opening statement, Alabama snapped back to form and took care of Duke, 42-3 in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
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Michael Casagrande | Mcasagrande@al.com, al, "AL.com instant analysis: Alabama trips early, overwhelms Duke later," 31 Aug. 2019
//But his tour of Chomskyan linguistics is entertaining and accessible—in contrast to Mr Chomsky’s own notoriously baffling prose.
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The Economist, "A new book spells out the magic of language," 22 Aug. 2019
//More baffling, the majority of patients had gastrointestinal symptoms, including nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
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Emily Willingham, Scientific American, "Hunt for Cause of Vaping Illness Suggests Multiple Mechanisms of Damage," 17 Sep. 2019
//But the boneheaded factor gives us pause: The likelihood that USC, not Stanford, will make a game-turning mistake (penalty, turnover) or that the USC sideline will keep Stanford in the game with a baffling decision.
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Jon Wilner, The Denver Post, "Pac-12 football picks: Conference games, rivalry games, revenge games … Week Two should be riveting," 6 Sep. 2019
First Known Use of baffling
1783, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries near baffling
More Synonyms and Antonyms ofbaffling
1
to prevent from achieving a goal
- the language barrier baffled everyone and discouraged us from attempting another teleconference
- barring,
- blocking,
- clogging,
- encumbering,
- fettering,
- hampering,
- handicapping,
- hindering,
- hobbling,
- holding back,
- impeding,
- inhibiting,
- interfering (with),
- manacling,
- obstructing,
- shackling,
- trammeling
- (or trammelling),
- tying up
- (or tieing up)
2
to throw into a state of mental uncertainty
- she was baffled by the wording of the clause in the insurance policy
- addling,
- bamboozling,
- beating,
- befogging,
- befuddling,
- bemusing,
- bewildering,
- buffaloing,
- confounding,
- confusing,
- discombobulating,
- disorienting,
- flummoxing,
- foxing,
- fuddling,
- getting,
- graveling
- (or gravelling),
- mazing,
- muddling,
- muddying,
- mystifying,
- perplexing,
- posing,
- puzzling,
- vexing
- agitating,
- bothering,
- chagrining,
- discomforting,
- discomposing,
- dismaying,
- disquieting,
- distressing,
- disturbing,
- perturbing,
- stunning,
- unhinging,
- unsettling,
- upsetting
- beguiling,
- cozening,
- deceiving,
- deluding,
- duping,
- fooling,
- gulling,
- hoaxing,
- hoodwinking,
- humbugging,
- misguiding,
- misleading,
- snowing,
- stringing along,
- taking in,
- tricking