Baf"fle (baf"f'l), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Baffled (-f'ld); p. pr. & vb. n. Baffling (-fling).] [Cf. Lowland Scotch bauchle to treat contemptuously, bauch tasteless, abashed, jaded, Icel. bAgr uneasy, poor, or bAgr, n., struggle, bægja to push, treat harshly, OF. beffler, beffer, to mock, deceive, dial. G. bäppe mouth, beffen to bark, chide.]
1.
To cause to undergo a disgraceful punishment, as a recreant knight. [Obs.]
He by the heels him hung upon a tree,
And baffled so, that all which passed by
The picture of his punishment might see.
Spenser.
2.
To check by shifts and turns; to elude; to foil.
The art that baffles time's tyrannic claim.
Cowper.
3.
To check by perplexing; to disconcert, frustrate, or defeat; to thwart. "A baffled purpose." De Quincey.
A suitable scripture ready to repel and baffle them all.
South.
Calculations so difficult as to have baffled, until within a . . . recent period, the most enlightened nations.
Prescott.
The mere intricacy of a question should not baffle us.
Locke.
Baffling wind (Naut.), one that frequently shifts from one point to another.
Syn. -- To balk; thwart; foil; frustrate; defeat.
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Baf"fle, v. i.
1.
To practice deceit. [Obs.] Barrow.
2.
To struggle against in vain; as, a ship baffles with the winds. [R.]
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Baf"fle, n.
A defeat by artifice, shifts, and turns; discomfiture. [R.] "A baffle to philosophy." South.
© Webster 1913
Baf"fle, n.
1. (Engin.)
(a)
A deflector, as a plate or wall, so arranged across a furnace or boiler flue as to mingle the hot gases and deflect them against the substance to be heated.
(b)
A grating or plate across a channel or pipe conveying water, gas, or the like, by which the flow is rendered more uniform in different parts of the cross section of the stream; -- used in measuring the rate of flow, as by means of a weir.
2. (Coal Mining)
A lever for operating the throttle valve of a winding engine. [Local, U. S.]
© Webster 1913