dynamic
toggle menu
menu
vocabulary
1000+ books

perplex
in a sentence

show 188 more with this conextual meaning
  • (perplexed) Why? What did I say?   (source)
  • Thorolf looked at Christopher, perplexed.   (source)
  • For a moment Dr. Cruz looked perplexed; then he smiled.†   (source)
  • She had, as was by then usual for her, been wearing her black robe, closed to her neck, and he had, as was by then usual for him, been wearing a size-too-small white T-shirt, pinned to his lean chest and stomach, and she had watched him and he had circled her, and they had gone to his place that night, and she had shuffled off the weight of her virginity with some perplexity but not excessive fuss.†   (source)
    perplexity = confusion due to complexity
  • And while he was waiting he looked at the counsellors who stood behind the chief, and he saw too that they were frowning and perplexed, and that for this matter there was no counsel that they could give at all.   (source)
    perplexed = baffled (confused--not knowing what to do)
  • When I woke in the morning, I was hungry, but I did not think first of my hunger for my heart was perplexed and confused.   (source)
    perplexed = confused
  • (More perplexed than ever)   (source)
    perplexed = confused or puzzled
  • He seemed to find this case very perplexing,   (source)
    perplexing = confusing due to complexity
  • I was in deep perplexity, because I knew that the teacher would demand of me at least two names, and I had only one.   (source)
    perplexity = confusion
  • In the daytime it is tiresome and perplexing.   (source)
    perplexing = confusing due to complexity
  • My parents were deeply grieved and perplexed.   (source)
    perplexed = confused or puzzled
  • The thing perplexes me altogether.   (source)
    perplexes = confuses
  • they were perplexing to reflect upon,--insoluble mysteries both.   (source)
    perplexing = confusing
  • exclaimed Alice, looking about in great perplexity, as first one round head, and then the other, rolled down from her shoulder, and lay like a heavy lump in her lap.   (source)
    perplexity = confusion due to complexity
  • She picked me up an hour later and I watched, perplexed, as she drove right past the hospital a few blocks from my apartment.†   (source)
  • "He looks like he wants you to grab hold...." said Ron, looking perplexed.†   (source)
  • Mom stared at the ceiling, miming perplexed thought.†   (source)
  • Why would any son cause his parents and family such permanent and perplexing pain?†   (source)
  • He moved the typed page closer to his good eye, then farther away, with a perplexed stare, as if it was a bill for something he hadn't ordered.†   (source)
  • He chuckles and stuffs the roll in Kitty's open, perplexed mouth.†   (source)
  • "How does someone tracking my online shopping affect security?" asked Susie, perplexed.†   (source)
  • The fellow looked perplexed at the Count's question, having assumed that it was his position to be of service to someone else.†   (source)
  • The guard looks perplexed.†   (source)
  • Mother gazed at me a little longer, with an expression that was both tender and perplexed.†   (source)
  • He looked at me closely and was clearly perplexed.†   (source)
  • But those had been open-fisted, more pats than punches, self-consciously friendly, comfortable expressions of anxieties that were both perplexing and thrilling.†   (source)
  • Langdon looked truly perplexed.†   (source)
  • He trailed off, a perplexed look wrinkling his eyebrows.†   (source)
  • She kissed him gently and he was too perplexed, too utterly wrong-footed, to know what to do.†   (source)
  • For their part, the Adlers were as perplexed as everyone else as to why they had been invited to Mrs. Williams's lunch.†   (source)
  • He gave me a slightly perplexed look and nodded.†   (source)
  • Perplexity came to her from the beast.†   (source)
  • He smiled sympathetically at Mae, but with a raised eyebrow, as if there was something about Mae that was perplexing him, something he couldn't put his finger on.†   (source)
  • We were a little perplexed, but the affair of the kitchen cabinets seemed mostly funny until two days later, when we got up and saw that it was going to rain soon, certainly before noon.†   (source)
  • For example, Dr. Dolder—dolt though he was—would have heard at least a little of the GOD'S INSTRUMENT theme; even Dr. Dolder would have uncovered Owen's perplexing and troubling anti-Catholicism.†   (source)
  • When the echo of his words had died away, the Knight of Flowers seemed perplexed.†   (source)
  • Phineas looked perplexed.†   (source)
  • But to hear these Silvers discuss them so, with such disdain, is perplexing.†   (source)
  • "What does it all mean?" asked Mr. Kiaga, who was greatly perplexed.†   (source)
  • The girl, frightened and perplexed, could hardly muster a shake of the head.†   (source)
  • William looked down at her, perplexed.†   (source)
  • Kai froze with a look of mild perplexity, and Cinder thought with a jolt that she'd succeeded—had she just used her Lunar gift?†   (source)
  • ELIZABETH, perplexed, looking at the doll: Why, thank you, it's a fair poppet.†   (source)
  • "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "our next act is another unique and perplexing one.†   (source)
  • For a perplexed moment I thought she was talking to me, but when I looked back she was turned toward my father.†   (source)
  • He looked genuinely perplexed.†   (source)
  • Murtagh seemed perplexed by Eragon's wrath.†   (source)
  • She probably meant something like "It is certainly perplexing."†   (source)
  • I thought he might be teasing me, but he seemed genuinely perplexed.†   (source)
  • He wore a mask similar to Alice's in simplicity, although not as perplexing to guests.†   (source)
  • I want to escape from Chava's tired, perplexed and tattered face, to run away from how something so beautiful, in its own way, can become so odious.†   (source)
  • Their conversation must have been sufficiently perplexing to warrant an early visit.†   (source)
  • I walked, perplexed, in my soaked clothes under the sun.†   (source)
  • He was looking back at me, so I frowned and looked perplexed and said, "I think he has a fever as well as broken ribs, sir."†   (source)
  • And most perplexing: Tell me your earrings.†   (source)
  • It was perplexing.†   (source)
  • "You put his patterns in chronological order?" my mother asks, perplexed.†   (source)
  • The yellow taxicabs that go sweeping past, honking their horns; the women with their briefcases, who look so perplexed to see a little old Japanese woman standing on the street corner in kimono.†   (source)
  • That perplexed Dede.†   (source)
  • Charlie was perplexed.†   (source)
  • At first Ashoke is more perplexed than moved, by the point-Mess of the head, the puffiness of the lids, the small white spots on the cheeks, the fleshy upper lip that droops prominently over the lower one.†   (source)
  • Perplexed to the point of bursting, I took the question to my elder siblings.†   (source)
  • Irony—sometimes comic, sometimes tragic, sometimes wry or perplexing—provides additional richness to the literary dish.†   (source)
  • The Mianaai on the left said, "Justice of Toren's behavior has been alarming and perplexing enough, just on its own.†   (source)
  • Dr. Rayner too was perplexed, according to Olmsted.†   (source)
  • "From someone who's been here," she finished simply, not understanding my perplexity.†   (source)
  • I've always been a little perplexed by the next verse, 'And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes.'†   (source)
  • Clary looked at her, perplexed.†   (source)
  • This jigsaw puzzle was even more perplexing: the box came locked.†   (source)
  • The New Jersey Commander Eaton was perplexed.†   (source)
  • Charles and I were perplexed: nobody was talking about why we were there at all!†   (source)
  • Sent psychologists out to these people's houses, gave them a free TV set to submit to an anonymous interview, hooked them to polygraphs, studied their brain waves as they showed them choppy, inexplicable movies of porn queens and late-night car crashes and Sammy Davis, Jr., put them in sweet-smelling, mauve-walled rooms and asked them questions about Ethics so perplexing that even a Jesuit couldn't respond without committing a venial sin.†   (source)
  • 'It'll be all right,' she said, and her face now had that slack, unplugged look , that look of perplexed vacuity , and before his mind was completely consumed in a forest fire of panic he understood that when this was over, she would have only the vaguest memories of what she had done, as she had only the vaguest memories of killing the children and the old people and the terminal patients and Andrew Pomeroy.†   (source)
  • Fermina Daza was perplexed and wanted to know why.†   (source)
  • Blomkvist looked at his watch and said, "One perplexing detail."†   (source)
  • We were quite perplexed and not unworried.†   (source)
  • And when I eventually did decide to do something, such as packing a suitcase, I only dragged all my grubby, expensive clothes out of the bureau and the closet and spread them on the chairs and the bed and the floor and then sat and stared at them, utterly perplexed.†   (source)
  • Mr. Ellerby looks perplexed and turns immediately toMautz.†   (source)
  • Norah nodded, still perplexed, increasingly unnerved.†   (source)
  • A cycle has been completed, all disturbances have been resolved, perplexities have been concealed, and things have returned to their original state.†   (source)
  • And he sounded genuinely perplexed, as though it were a difficult decision.†   (source)
  • They will be perplexed that we shrugged as a lack of investment in maternal health caused half a million women to perish in childbirth each year.†   (source)
  • I looked at the comb in my hand as if perplexed.†   (source)
  • Ch'idzigyaak was perplexed by her friend.†   (source)
  • "Well," says Martin, gazing at the page as though perplexed.†   (source)
  • Sophie and a few other women sniffed at the spot and then, perplexed, silently looked at each other.†   (source)
  • Indeed, dear squire, they perplex me as well.†   (source)
  • Some struggled with knives and forks the size of axes and shovels, some stared at their meal in perplexity.†   (source)
  • Dr. Jones arches a brow, perplexed.†   (source)
  • The whole business was perplexing, but he couldn't just stand around and wonder about it.†   (source)
  • She turned to him fleetingly a countenance of appeal and perplexity.†   (source)
  • He vanishes beneath the edge of the table, his eyes perplexed, his mouth still open.†   (source)
  • The idea of eternal return is a mysterious one, and Nietzsche has often perplexed other philosophers with it: to think that everything recurs as we once experienced it, and that the recurrence itself recurs ad infinitum!†   (source)
  • Explored our far-flung underground world in an endless wargame of leaps onto nothing, ingenious twists into freedom or new perplexity, quick whispered plottings with invisible friends, wild cackles when vengeance was mine.†   (source)
  • But the tension of the elders—their expectation, which weighted like a thick blanket over the crowd—was the most perplexing of all.†   (source)
  • Brother Prior looked completely perplexed.†   (source)
  • 'I still can't hear you,' Aarfy called back innocently with an expression of mild and reproving perplexity.†   (source)
  • And felt the sharpest edge of what might have been hysteria dulling into perplexity.†   (source)
  • Dominique looks completely perplexed.†   (source)
  • We keep last night's promise alive through furtive glances and little asides spoken in code that perplex our teachers and make us all smile.†   (source)
  • "What do you mean, where did we hear it?" asked Valya, perplexed.†   (source)
  • I looked at him, disgusted and perplexed.†   (source)
  • Politics were no less perplexing than ever.†   (source)
  • The rabbits were perplexed.†   (source)
  • He smiles, arms raised, palms turned up in an attitude of perplexity.†   (source)
  • My father exchanged a perplexed glance with Ashley.†   (source)
  • The hacker scowled, seeming more perplexed than mad, though.†   (source)
  • CHAPTER 2 THE WRONG SIDE OF THE RIVER Why ponder thus the future to foresee, and jade thy brain to vain perplexity?†   (source)
  • We watched her go, slightly perplexed.†   (source)
  • Everyone is perplexed with the question of what must be done to dissolve this fear and hatred that crouched over the land like a demon waiting to spring, and you know how he came and showed them the way.†   (source)
  • A perplexed first vice-president got on the line.†   (source)
  • The boys gave one another some perplexing looks.†   (source)
  • Archie watched Carter drift away, looking troubled and perplexed.†   (source)
  • Cool and dry, ravenously hungry, lost, perplexed, and safe, they leaned back against their packs and blankets as they listened to the engines and the sea and watched the shore go by.†   (source)
  • He desired to go to the high seat himself, hoping to see there something that would guide him in his perplexities; but time was pressing.†   (source)
  • It had let me know that it was okay to be perplexed, to be torn by issues, to look at the world and not feel inadequate because it would not sort itself out cleanly.†   (source)
  • Shouts and wailing came from a perplexing number of directions.†   (source)
  • It was perplexing to know whether the time had not come when we ought to get rid of the tell-tale great-horses — perhaps drive them on along the track while we made off in a different direction on foot.†   (source)
  • "Lisa?" he said, perplexed.†   (source)
  • She gazed at him, obviously perplexed.†   (source)
  • Old Chao's voice was strangely rough, perplexity cut with cheer.†   (source)
  • Her left eyebrow was slightly higher than her right, giving the impression that she was perpetually interested, or maybe perpetually perplexed.†   (source)
  • He had never been impulsive, like Hill; there was even at this moment something grave and perplexed about him, a studious bewilderment.†   (source)
  • But most people are perplexed after someone is good to them when he should have been mean.†   (source)
  • The history of every political body using this principle is a history of impotence, perplexity, and disorder.†   (source)
  • I was perplexed as to what I should do.†   (source)
  • A desiccated violet flattened in waxed paper made him first frown in perplexity and then smile, but without saying why, and he spent some time studying a typewritten list of what must have been New Year's resolutions.†   (source)
  • I went to my husband and he was perplexed twice over.†   (source)
  • The television commentators were perplexed.†   (source)
  • Which is why I'm perplexed that you let drunken Reds sit around here in your own headquarters.†   (source)
  • Most perplexing of all was the number of people I tried to tell about my walk across America who wouldn't believe me.†   (source)
  • The perplexities of the time had now invaded his routine, and he was a troubled man.†   (source)
  • As I stared in perplexity, the first boa was joined by a second one, also waving furiously, and both boas began to move slowly along, parallel to the crest of the esker.†   (source)
  • The pilot climbed out, shaking his head in perplexity.†   (source)
  • Doubtless those nearest us who had witnessed the strange scene were perplexed.†   (source)
  • She was perplexed.†   (source)
  • She considers them in turn; they digest it, KELLER frowning, KATE perplexed.†   (source)
  • Lib and Helen stood behind him and watched, perplexed.†   (source)
  • Papa's way of thinking perplexed her.†   (source)
  • What perplexed him in her voice was its remoteness.†   (source)
  • Then he began "The Old Rugged Cross" and they listened politely but when he had finished they said, "Let us sing one!" and before he could start another, they began to sing with their convent-trained voices, "Tantum ergo Sacramentum Veneremur Cernui: Et antiquum documentum Novo cedat ritui:" The child watched the boys' solemn faces turn with perplexed frowning stares at each other as if they were uncertain whether they were being made fun of.†   (source)
  • "Oh!" and "So!" the policeman kept saying, while Howard in perplexity turned his head from side to side.†   (source)
  • His father looked perplexed, then shook his head.†   (source)
  • Her frown changed to a look of perplexity, then to a quick smile.†   (source)
  • Now Kino's face was perplexed and worried.   (source)
    perplexed = confused or puzzled
  • The danger is here, for two men are not as lonely and perplexed as one.   (source)
  • Then as is the nature of folk that are thoroughly perplexed, they began to grumble at the hobbit, blaming him for what had at first so pleased them:   (source)
  • The two men stood on the landing perplexed.   (source)
  • He scratched his head with a perplexed air,   (source)
  • Phoebe loved no riddles, and would have been glad to escape the perplexity of this one.   (source)
    perplexity = confusion due to complexity
  • He vividly recalled those old doubts and perplexities,   (source)
    perplexities = things that confuse
  • Bathsheba regarded him with round-eyed perplexity.   (source)
    perplexity = confusion due to complexity
  • He was a little country boy, and this village was to him a very strange and perplexing place, where people wore fine clothes and had hard hearts.   (source)
    perplexing = confusing
  • I pondered a moment in sore perplexity.   (source)
    perplexity = confusion due to complexity
  • It was a perplexing puzzle,   (source)
    perplexing = confusing due to complexity
  • The young dinosaur seemed perplexed by the sounds and movement coming from its tiny prey.†   (source)
    perplexed = confused or puzzled
  • In competitions Sunny was mostly magnificent, but it seemed that there were always a few difficult and even strangely blundering moments in her performances, perplexing passages marring what was otherwise wholesale surety and brilliance.†   (source)
    perplexing = confusing due to complexity
  • When she seemed to run out of words, I shook my head, perplexed.†   (source)
  • Pouring himself a glass of orange juice, he watched these girls of his, perplexed.†   (source)
  • Perplexed, the technician gazed up at the monitor.†   (source)
  • And then a perplexed expression crossed his face.†   (source)
  • I must still look perplexed because Gale delivers the next line very slowly.†   (source)
  • Langdon looked equally perplexed, the excitement in his eyes evaporating.†   (source)
  • "I...I'm not sure," she said, her tone perplexed.†   (source)
  • She was perplexed at first by the sudden smile.†   (source)
  • The priest scratched his head, looking perplexed.†   (source)
  • She left Dodgson on the riverbank, perplexed, and ran the entire way home.†   (source)
  • Dumbledore's reading what signs?" said Ron, looking perplexed.†   (source)
  • Eragon halted in front of it, perplexed.†   (source)
  • She was perplexed by a seemingly small detail in the rush of events that happened that night.†   (source)
  • Perplexed, Langdon left him there and hurried outside.†   (source)
  • He is perplexed as to why the questions are directed to him.†   (source)
  • The host of She on TV4 looked perplexed.†   (source)
  • The child, Perplexed, said from the doorway, "It's going to spill.†   (source)
  • DANFORTH, perplexed, but politely extending his hand: If you please, sir.†   (source)
  • The American mothers were at once charmed and perplexed by her sense of duty.†   (source)
  • The whole setup is completely perplexing.†   (source)
  • Perplexed, I stand and lift the wire, confirming it's attached back at the tree.†   (source)
  • Lazily she turned her head toward me, her face showing no anxiety or perplexity at all.†   (source)
  • The fair's lackluster attendance troubled and perplexed him.†   (source)
  • Aris nodded, obviously as perplexed as anyone else in the room.†   (source)
  • She didn't want to check her wrist, knowing that the comments would be perplexed and even concerned.†   (source)
  • The president doesn't seem alarmed, only somewhat perplexed, by this turn in events.†   (source)
  • Perplexed, Ron followed Harry back to Gryffindor Tower at a run.†   (source)
  • Then a perplexed look came across his face.†   (source)
  • He glanced at me, perplexed, and back to Carlisle.†   (source)
  • And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?"†   (source)
  • But the Panther looks perplexed, tipping her head to the side.†   (source)
▲ show less (of above)