Sekirov Dictionary

puzzle

/ˈpʌzəl/

noun 4
verb 8
forms 5
phrases 5

noun4

a problem or set of pieces made to be worked out for fun or to test how well someone thinks
•
A thing such as a complicated matter or a problem which is difficult to make sense of or understand; also, a person who is difficult to make sense of or understand; an enigma.
- Where he went after he left the house is a puzzle.
•
The state of feeling confused or mystified because one cannot understand a complicated matter, a problem, etc.; bewilderment, confusion; (countable) often in in a puzzle: an instance of this.
- Certainly, Men in Great Fortunes, are strangers to themselues, and vvhile they are in the pusle of businesse, they haue no time to tend their Health, either of Body, or Minde. — 1625
(no longer used) Short for puzzle-peg (“a piece of wood secured under a dog's jaw to keep the dog's nose away from the ground so that it uses the scent in the air to track its quarry, and to prevent the dog from tearing the quarry once found”).

verb8

•
[with oneself] To cause (oneself or someone, or their mind, etc.) to feel confused or mystified because they cannot understand a complicated matter, a problem, etc.; to confuse, to mystify, to perplex.
- After they had puzzled themselves here, as I said, tvvo or three Days, one of the Lieutenants and a Man vvith him, seeing a Hut or House of a Chilian at some Distance, rode avvay tovvards it; […] — 1725
•
To cause (someone) to not know what to do due to some problem, situation, etc.; to bewilder, to confound, to perplex.
- I say there is no darknesse but ignorance, in vvhich thou art more puzel'd then the Aegyptians in their fogge. — 1601
Often followed by about, over, or upon: to feel confused or mystified because one cannot understand a complicated matter, a problem, etc.
•
To use (one's brain or mind) to try to work out a complicated matter, a problem, etc.; also, to try to work out (a complicated matter, a problem, etc.).
- VVhich pusles the braine, and doth confound the sence, / VVhich makes vs rather beare those euilles vve haue, / Than flie to others that vve knovv knot of. — 1599
•
Often followed by about, over, or or upon: to think deeply in bewilderment to try to work out a complicated matter, a problem, etc.
- We puzzled over the curious-shaped lock, but were unable to discover how the key should be inserted.
Followed by through: to solve a complicated matter, a problem, etc., by working through confusing or difficult matters.
To search in a confused or mystified manner.
•
(no longer used) To (intentionally) make (something) complicated or confused, and so difficult to resolve or understand; to confuse, to complicate.
- [H]e vvas heard vvith great attention, though his Parts vvere most prevalent in puzzling and perplexing that discourse he meant to cross. — 1702

forms

puzzled · puzzling · puzzles · puzzleth · puzzlest

Phrases with puzzle

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