bewilder

present singular third person bewilders · participle present bewildering · participle past bewildered · past bewildered

1. transitiveTo confuse, disorientate, or puzzle someone, especially with many different choices.

   Don’t push me into that maze and bewilder me.

   5 more examples

   All the different possible options may bewilder us.

   Thou, Kind Redeemer, toucht to ſee / So ſad a Sight, ſuch moving Miſery, / Didſt ſoon determine to diſpel / Theſe Shades of Death, and Gloom of Hell: / And ſo to reviſit with Thy Heav'nly Light / Loſt Man, bewilder'd in Infernal Night.

   1703, [Richard Blackmore], A Hymn to the Light of the World. With a Short Description of the Cartons of Raphael Urbin, in the Gallery at Hampton-Court, London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, page 8

   Such Works, in point of Precepts, are of the Number of thoſe that are call'd ſpecious, in which the Authors, whilſt they endeavour too exactly to explain what they have dogmatically advanc'd, loſe themſelves in imaginary Mazes, and bewilder themſelves more and more.

   1717, Louis Liger, “Of the Flowers that are to be Sown in the Month of March, and of the Manner of Raising Them”, in George London, Henry Wise, transl., The Retir’d Gardener. In Six Parts. […], 2nd revised edition, London: Publish’d […] by Joseph Carpenter; [p]rinted for J[acob] Tonson […], →OCLC, part the fifth, page 269

   It is that fiend politics, Asem,—that baneful fiend, which bewildereth every brain, and poisons every social feeling; which intrudes itself at the festive banquet, and, like the detestable harpy, pollutes the very viands of the table; [...]

   1807 October 15, “Mustapha Rub-a-Dub Keli Khan” [pseudonym; Washington Irving; William Irving; James Kirke Paulding], “Letter from Mustapha Rub-a-Dub Keli Khan, to Asem Hacchem, Principal Slave-driver to His Highness the Bashaw of Tripoli”, in Salmagundi; or, The Whim-whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, Esq. and Others [...] First Series. In Two Volumes, new corrected edition, volume II, number XVI, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], published 1835, →OCLC, page 157

   [P]ause therefore, now, and solemnly determine that you will never again degrade your being, by bewildering your brain with strong liquor.

   1821, Plain Directions on Domestic Economy, Showing Particularly What are the Cheapest, and Most Nourishing Articles of Food and Drink, and the Best Modes of Preparation, New York, N.Y.: Published by order of the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism; printed by Samuel Wood & Sons, […], →OCLC, page 13

   Synonyms: befuddle, addle, baffle, vex, lose, embroil, stick, stump