bewilder

Etymology

From be- (prefix used as an intensifier) + wilder (“to lead astray; to go astray, wander”).

verb

1. (transitive) To confuse, disorientate, or puzzle someone, especially with many different choices.
   All the different possible options may bewilder us.
   Don’t push me into that maze and bewilder me.
   Thou, Kind Redeemer, toucht to ſee / So ſad a Sight, ſuch moving Miſery, / Didſt ſoon determine to diſpel / Theſe Shades of Death, and Gloom of Hell: / And ſo to reviſit with Thy Heav'nly Light / Loſt Man, bewilder'd in Infernal Night. 1703, [Richard Blackmore], A Hymn to the Light of the World. With a Short Description of the Cartons of Raphael Urbin, in the Gallery at Hampton-Court, London: Printed for Jacob Tonson[…], →OCLC, page 8
   Such Works, in point of Precepts, are of the Number of thoſe that are call'd ſpecious, in which the Authors, whilſt they endeavour too exactly to explain what they have dogmatically advanc'd, loſe themſelves in imaginary Mazes, and bewilder themſelves more and more. 1717, Louis Liger, “Of the Flowers that are to be Sown in the Month of March, and of the Manner of Raising Them”, in George London, Henry Wise, transl., The Retir’d Gardener. In Six Parts.[…], 2nd revised edition, London: Publish’d […] by Joseph Carpenter; [p]rinted for J[acob] Tonson[…], →OCLC, part the fifth, page 269
   It is that fiend politics, Asem,—that baneful fiend, which bewildereth every brain, and poisons every social feeling; which intrudes itself at the festive banquet, and, like the detestable harpy, pollutes the very viands of the table; … 15 October 1807, “Mustapha Rub-a-Dub Keli Khan” [pseudonym; Washington Irving; William Irving; James Kirke Paulding], “Letter from Mustapha Rub-a-Dub Keli Khan, to Asem Hacchem, Principal Slave-driver to His Highness the Bashaw of Tripoli”, in Salmagundi; or, The Whim-whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, Esq. and Others … First Series. In Two Volumes, new corrected edition, volume II, number XVI, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers[…], published 1835, →OCLC, page 157
   [P]ause therefore, now, and solemnly determine that you will never again degrade your being, by bewildering your brain with strong liquor. 1821, Plain Directions on Domestic Economy, Showing Particularly What are the Cheapest, and Most Nourishing Articles of Food and Drink, and the Best Modes of Preparation, New York, N.Y.: Published by order of the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism; printed by Samuel Wood & Sons,[…], →OCLC, page 13
   Thou bewilderest my mind by thy ambiguous words. Tell me, therefore, one only thing for certain, by which I may obtain happiness. 1874, Hurrychund Chintamon, chapter 3, in A Commentary on the Text of the Bhagavad-Gítá; or, The Discourse between Krishna and Arjuna on Divine Matters.[…], London: Trübner and Co.,[…], →OCLC, page 17
   She preceded me along a strange path, unlike any I have ever seen in other countries. … [T]he contours of the gardens these walls confine dispose it to leisure; it curves or doubles back altogether, and right at the start a bend bewilders us; there is no knowing where we have come from or where we are heading. 1970 April, André Gide, chapter IV, in Richard Howard, transl., The Immoralist: A New Translation (A Borzoi Book), New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →OCLC; 1st Vintage International edition, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, February 1996, part I, page 38
   Ever more new drugs appeared on the market, bewildering and swamping clinicians who had been accustomed in their pharmaceutical armamentarium to a handful of painkillers, alkaloids with physiological effects, and vaccines. 2013, Edward [L.] Shorter, “Medicine”, in Partnership for Excellence: Medicine at the University of Toronto and Academic Hospitals, Toronto, Ont., Buffalo, N.Y.: University of Toronto Press, page 210
   It was remarkable that Tunisia reached half-time on level terms as they were often bewildered by England's pace and movement before being spared by their generosity in front of goal. 18 June 2018, Phil McNulty, “Tunisia 1 – 2 England”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 2019-04-21