Baffle, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Baffled (p. pr. & vb. n. Baffling (.]
Etymology: [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.
2 other Webster entries under this spelling
Baffle, v. i.
1. To practice deceit. [Obs.] Barrow.
2. To struggle against in vain; as, a ship baffles with the winds. [R.]
Baffle, n.
A defeat by artifice, shifts, and turns; discomfiture. [R.] "A baffle to philosophy." South.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for baffle; he lists it under hinder.
He lists it without comment; the entries above explain its neighbors.