Chapter Baffle to Bain-marie of B by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

Baffle to Bain-marie

Baffle
(Baf"fle) v. t. [imp. & p. p. Baffled (-f'ld); p. pr. & vb. n. Baffling ] [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.

Baffle
(Baf"fle), v. i.

1. To practice deceit. [Obs.] Barrow.

2. To struggle against in vain; as, a ship baffles with the winds. [R.]

Baffle
(Baf"fle), n. A defeat by artifice, shifts, and turns; discomfiture. [R.] "A baffle to philosophy." South.

Bafflement
(Baf"fle*ment) n. The process or act of baffling, or of being baffled; frustration; check.

Baffler
(Baf"fler) n. One who, or that which, baffles.

Baffling
(Baf"fling) a. Frustrating; discomfiting; disconcerting; as, baffling currents, winds, tasks. — Baff"ling*ly, adv. — Baff"ling*ness, n.

Baft
(Baft) n. Same as Bafta.

Bafta
(Baf"ta) n. [Cf. Per. baft woven, wrought.] A coarse stuff, usually of cotton, originally made in India. Also, an imitation of this fabric made for export.

Bag
(Bag) n. [OE. bagge; cf. Icel. baggi, and also OF. bague, bundle, LL. baga.]

1. A sack or pouch, used for holding anything; as, a bag of meal or of money.

2. A sac, or dependent gland, in animal bodies, containing some fluid or other substance; as, the bag of poison in the mouth of some serpents; the bag of a cow.

3. A sort of silken purse formerly tied about men's hair behind, by way of ornament. [Obs.]

4. The quantity of game bagged.