baffle

Etymology

Origin uncertain. Perhaps related to French bafouer (“to scorn”) or obsolete French befer (“to mock”), via Scots bauchle (“to disgrace”).

verb

1. To bewilder completely; to confuse or perplex.
   I am baffled by the contradictions and omissions in the instructions.
   Every abstruse problem, every intricate question will not baffle, discourage or break it [the mind]
2. (intransitive) To struggle in vain.
   A ship baffles with the winds.
3. (now rare) To foil; to thwart.
   the art that baffles time's tyrannic claim 1798, William Cowper, On the Receipt of My Mother's Picture
   It may have been the failure of Christianity to emancipate itself from expiatory theories of moral responsibility, guilt, innocence, reward, punishment, and the rest of it, that baffled its intention of changing the world. 1898, George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra
   So they had to search the world again for a sphinx. And still there was none. But they were not men that it is easy to baffle, and at last they found a sphinx in a desert at evening watching a ruined temple whose gods she had eaten hundreds of years ago when her hunger was on her. 1915, Edward Plunkett, Lord Dunsany, Fifty-One Tales
4. (obsolete) To publicly disgrace, especially of a recreant knight.
5. (obsolete) To hoodwink or deceive (someone).

noun

1. 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.
   sound baffle
   Tanker trucks use baffles to keep the liquids inside from sloshing around.
2. An architectural feature designed to confuse enemies or make them vulnerable.
3. (US, dialect, coal mining) A lever for operating the throttle valve of a winding engine.