baffler

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baf·fle

(băf′əl)

tr.v. baf·fled, baf·fling, baf·fles

1. To confuse or perplex, especially so as to frustrate or prevent from taking action: a patient whose condition baffled the physicians.

2. To impede the force or movement of (a fluid).

1. A usually static device that regulates the flow of a fluid or light.

2. A partition that prevents interference between sound waves in a loudspeaker.

[Perhaps blend of Scottish Gaelic bauchle, to denounce, revile publicly, and French bafouer, to ridicule.]

baf′fle·ment n.

baf′fler n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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References in periodicals archive ?

McCormack's son Noah, who became publisher of the glossy leftwing magazine The Baffler in 2015, announced on Twitter that he would be moving to New York to take on a new, unspecified role at TNR working under Fish.

Chris Hughes Sells The New Republic Magazine

For over 20 years, American culture and politics have been watched over, provoked, and lambasted by the Baffler, a gloriously liberal journal, new issues of which appeared, in their own good time, between 1988 and 2007.

In conversation: John Summers and Chris Lehman with John Cotter

Boy baffler He's chatty and cutesy with you the sec you sign on.

Is he for real? Five ways to gauge if you and your guy are truly meant to be

Tommy Daniels of Glasgow sets this week's baffler. He asks: "What is the family connection between Hollywood legend Humphrey Bogart and football legend Sir Alex Ferguson?" I fail to see the resemblance.

SLAM SAM

He said: "My friend Eddie Moran loaned me his Cobra Baffler rescue club, suggesting it might be easier to hit because I was struggling to commit fully to shots after being out for a month with torn tendons in my wrist.

Borrow and joy as Kev lands an ace

After a costly judicial review, the council agreed to carry out the tests, fit a noise baffler and reapply for planning permission.

Leader in Big Screen admission

After a year of bickering, and a costly judicial review, the council finally agreed to carry out the tests, fit a noise baffler, and reapply for planning permission.

Whitby admits 'mistakes' on city's pounds 1 million Big Screen debacle; POLITICS

FROM SPAIN COMES A MEDICAL baffler for aspiring House MDs.

Thumbs up for heroic medicine

Top linguistics expert John Wells, a professor of phonetics at the University of London, has got farmers across Britain discussing this bovine baffler.

Do Welsh cows REALLY moo with an accent?

Frank, editor of the political and literary journal The Baffler and author of One Market, Under God, grew up in Kansas, though he now lives in Washington, D.C.