baffle (fle as fel), baffull

t. & i. [From Low Scotch bauchle. In Fr. bafonert to treat with derision, to scoff at, to baffle; O. Fr. beffler, beffer; Sp. befar = to scoff, to jeer; Ital beffare to rally, to cheat, to over-reach. Comp. Dut. baffen to bark, to yelp; Ger, haffen, bafzen to yelp; Hind. befaida = to baffle.] A. Transitive: 1. To subject to some public and degrading punishment. (Used specially of a knight who had shown cowardice or violated his pledged allegiance.) "And after all for greater infamie He by the heels him hung upon a tree, And bafful'd so, that all which pa ed by The picture of his punishment might see. Spenser: F. Q., VL. vii. 27. "In this state I continued, 'till they hung me up by th' heels, and beat me wi' hasle-sticks, as if they would have bak'd me. After this I railed and eat quietly: for the whole kingdom took notice of me for a bafled and whip'd fellow."- King and No King, ii. 2. 2. To elnde, to escape from, especially by artifice. "By wily turns, by desperate bounds, Had baffled Percy's best bloodhounds." Scott: Lay of the Last Minstrel , 1 11. 3. To thwart, to defeat in any other way. (In this case the baffler and the baffled may be a man, one of the inferior animals, or a thing.) "But, though the felon on his back could dare The dreadful leap, more rational, his steed Declined the death, and wheeling swiftly round, Or e'er his hoof had pre 'd the crumbling verge, Baffled his rider, saved against his will." Cowper: Task, bk. vi. IMG:content-0995.png:[blocks in formation] "Do we not palpably baffle , when, in respect to God, we pretend to deny ourselves, yet, upon urgent occa sion, allow him nothing?"- Barrow : Works, i. 437. "To what purpose can it be to juggle and baffle for a time?"- Ibid ., 111. 180. 2. To struggle ineffectually against, as when a ship is said to baffle ineffectually with the winds. (a) Wedgwood believes that there are two distinct verbs spelled baffte , which have been confounded together. Under the one he would place the signification given above as No. 1, viz., to degrade, to insult. The second and third significations of the transitive verb, and that ranked under the intransitive one, he would relegate to his second verb, of which the primary form was intransitive, signifying to act in an ineffective manner, and transitively to cause one to act in such a way. This second verb he connects with the Swi baffeln =to chatter, to talk idly. ( Wedgwood : Dict. Eng. Etym., 2nd ed., p. 39.) (b) Crabb thus distinguishes between the verbs to baffle , to defeat , to disconcert, and to confound: "When applied to the derangement of the mind or rational faculties, baffle and defeat respect the powers of argument, disc on cert and confound the thoughts and feelings. Bafle expre es le than defent ; disconcert le than confound . A person is baffled in argument who is for the time discomposed and silenced by the superior addre of his opponent: he is defeated in argument if his opponent has altogether the advantage of him in strength of reasoning and justne of sentiment. A person is disconcerted who loses his presence of mind for a moment, or has his feelings any way discomposed; he is confounded when the powers of thought and consciousne become torpid or vanish." "When applied to the derangement of plans, baffle expre es le than defeat ; defeat le than confound ; and disconcert le than all. Obstinacy, perseverance, skill, or art bafles ; force or violence defeats ; awkward circumstances disconcert ; the visitation of God confounds . When wicked men strive to obtain their ends, it is a happy thing when their adversaries have sufficient skill and addre to baffle all their arts, and sufficient power to defeat all their projects; but sometimes when our best endeavours fail in our own behalf, the devices of men are confounded by the interposition of Heaven." ( Crabb : Eng. Synon .)