baffle

in a sentence

grouped by contextual meaning

Doctors are baffled by her symptoms.

"Whas moo g-goo g-gipn?" Chris asked, baffled by the strange words on the menu.  (source) Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game, 1978

Many aspects of Chris's personality baffled his parents.  (source) Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild, 1996

No wonder his father had been so baffled by him.  (source) Madeline Miller, Circe, 2018

Heart-smitten at this bewildering and baffling spell, that so often came between herself and her sole treasure, whom she had bought so dear, and who was all her world, Hester sometimes burst into passionate tears.  (source) Nathanial Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, 1850

—but what seemed to baffle Xandra most was not his extreme drunkenness (he'd been virtually unconscious at the wheel) but the location of the accident—outside Vegas, heading west, into the desert.  (source) Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch, 2013

…Nadia and her family both considered her thereafter to be without a family, something all of them, all four, for the rest of their lives, regretted, but which none of them would ever act to repair, partly out of stubbornness, partly out of bafflement at how to go about doing so, and partly because the impending descent of their city into the abyss would come before they realized that they had lost the chance.  (source) Moshin Hamid, Exit West, 2017

After bringing the RTG into the Hab, I very carefully glued some tubing around the heat baffles.†  (source) Andy Weir, The Martian, 2011

What most observers failed to perceive in him was something quite bafflingly simple—a love of quietness, contemplation, and being alone.†  (source) James Hilton, Lost Horizon, 1933

The Boss follows her, bafflled.†  (source) Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire, 1947

She is flanked by the other two, in a litter of paper-doll cutouts, and while they speak HELEN'S hands thrust at their faces in turn, feeling baffledly at the movements of their lips.†  (source) William Gibson, The Miracle Worker, 1957

"What do you mean?" Lilian asked, baffled.  (source) Mina Baites, The Silver Music Box, 2017

Claude's gift—if that's what it could be called—was all the more baffling for its effortlessness.†  (source) David Wroblewski, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, 2008

From here it goes into the baffle tank, then over to the warming pan, and finally into the settling tank.  (source) Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees, 2002

Inside it was a water-filled ballast tank, a beehive of cellular baffles seven feet across.  (source) Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October, 1984

Now it carried more than a hundred thousand products, including baffling-sounding instruments such as the "general-purpose air velocity transducer" ($882) and an "electromagnetic flowmeter" ($2,500).  (source) Joshua Davis, Spare Parts, 2014

It was a lengthy process, for the submarine had many such tanks, each carefully subdivided by numerous cellular baffles.  (source) Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October, 1984

Sugar-Girl nudged Otis with her elbow, and he stepped up and helped them get her situated between the extractor and the baffle tank.  (source) Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees, 2002

To make use of the newly developed heat exchanger, the Alfa plant had to move water rapidly through its many loops and baffles.  (source) Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October, 1984

The force of the explosion had torn a hole twelve feet across, shredded the interior ballast tank baffles, and ruptured a half-dozen air flasks, but already much of its force had been dissipated.  (source) Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October, 1984

The paddle moved rhythmically, causing baffles that rocked the boat ever so slightly.  (source) Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook, 1996

"He's abeam of us, we'll be in his baffles soon," Chief Laval reported.  (source) Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October, 1984

Animals had long since ceased to use the watering place above the settlement and buck rarely appeared in the little valley; now they began drifting into it, would find themselves baffled by the thorn fence, and would scramble out.  (source) Robert A. Heinlein, Tunnel In the Sky, 1955

This confused but fierce rally lasted less than a minute, however; when, Hurry, furious at having his strength baffled by the agility and nakedness of his foe, made a desperate effort, which sent the Huron from him, hurling his body violently against the logs of the hut.  (source) James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer, 1841

She heard the baffles of the water and felt the movement of the canoe as he propelled it forward, away from the pull of the creek.  (source) Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook, 1996

If he chooses to lie hidden, he may baffle us for years.  (source) Bram Stoker, Dracula, 1897

I prepared myself for a multitude of reverses; my operations might be incessantly baffled, and at last my work be imperfect, yet when I considered the improvement which every day takes place in science and mechanics, I was encouraged to hope my present attempts would at least lay the foundations of future success.  (source) Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, 1831

Ordinarily a submarine's sonar will work in any direction except aft—an area called the cone of silence, or the baffles.  (source) Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October, 1984

You think to baffle me, you with your pale faces all in a row, like sheep in a butcher's.  (source) Bram Stoker, Dracula, 1897

So material, indeed, was the difference in the rate of going between the two canoes for the next five minutes, that the Hurons began to be convinced all their powers must be exerted or they would suffer the disgrace of being baffled by women.  (source) James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer, 1841

The Soviet missile submarine was making a complete circle so her bow-mounted sonar could check for anyone hiding in her baffles.  (source) Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October, 1984

But I shall baffle this fiend or monster, for I shall tie my hands to the wheel when my strength begins to fail, and along with them I shall tie that which He, It, dare not touch.  (source) Bram Stoker, Dracula, 1897

Every window and door was fastened and locked, and I returned baffled to the porch.  (source) Bram Stoker, Dracula, 1897